


We Might Fade But We Won't Be Erased

by Ness09



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King, Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Awful Parents, Blood, Gen, Richie Tozier and Mike Wheeler Are Twins, Violence, lots of platonic love with little romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-02-15 16:13:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 108,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13034763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ness09/pseuds/Ness09
Summary: Hunted for their powers the Losers and the Party have been forced to lead a life in the shadows, but when the two groups meet, it puts all of them back on the radar of the people looking for them. They will have to figure out a way to work together if they want to keep their freedom and stand up to their enemy.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bev and Mike run into other Supers on their supply run

„Oh my God, Richie! What the hell is that face?”

Beverly’s outburst made Mike look up from the book he was reading. There, in the doorway, stood a white man in his mid-twenties with slicked back brown hair, wearing khaki shorts, loafers and a pink polo shirt. Mike felt weird just looking at him and the uneasy feeling got worse, when the guy started laughing. His voice was exactly what he imagined it to be.

There was a look of pure disgust on Bev’s and Eddie’s faces, while Stan barely acknowledged him. Bill and Ben seemed to be more amused.

“What, you mean this fuckface?”, the guy said, gesturing to his own face. Mike definitely preferred it when Richie used his own face or at least one of his more common ones. “Well, yesterday this ugly bastard kept harassing me and wouldn’t take no for an answer. He even called me a whore!” Richie sat down in the chair next to Eddie, stole Ben’s fork and tried to get some of Eddie’s eggs, but the shorter boy quickly shielded his plate.

“I’m not sharing with you when you look like that.”

“You never share with him”, Mike pointed out, but was ignored. Richie just shrugged and ate some of Ben’s food instead.

“And why would you want to look like that asshole?”, Bev asked, going back to the original topic.

“Revenge! I’m going to get him arrested.”

“Richie, no!” Ben was probably the only one, who still thought that telling Richie No would actually have an effect on him.

Stan sighed. “You’ll get yourself arrested more likely.”

Richie pouted, which made the face he was wearing look like a big baby. Maybe that was just Mike’s bias towards people that looked like that, but he found they were usually whiny babies pretending to be adults.

“See, Stanley, I was going to rob a store or something and buy everyone something nice, but you just put yourself on the naughty list.”

“So are you Santa now?”

Richie leaned over the table to get closer to Stan and wiggled his eyebrows. “I can be, if you’re into that.”

Stan smiled thinly at him before he started gathering the empty plates. “I’m Jewish.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t be into old fat men”, Richie called after him.

“Should I b-b-be offended?”

Mike put his book down, now that Richie was here, there was no point in trying anymore. Although he had gotten pretty good at drowning out his constant jabbering, Mike preferred to read in quieter surroundings.

“Can you at least change your face for now? I’m trying to eat here”, Eddie said.

“He’s not that gross looking”, Richie said. “All the gross stuff is on the inside, but for you, my dear Eddie Spaghetti, of course.”

Richie’s form rippled. Mike always thought he looked blurry and out of focus in between his faces, like something you can see in the corner of your eye, but never directly look at. It only took a second and suddenly there were two Eddie’s sitting at the table.

It clearly wasn’t what Eddie had wanted, as he scowled at his twin. “I thought you could just be yourself.”

“Nah, I wanted to be as cute as can be.” Richie grinned and held out his fork. “Share with me now? Can’t catch germs from yourself.”

“Change again!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Richie!”

Yes, the quiet was definitely over. Richie had always been messing with them, but since Eddie joined them almost a year ago, he’d started to annoy him the most. Someone had to get the short end of the stick, he supposed, and as much as Mike loved Richie, he was glad it wasn’t him. He could deal with being called Micycle every now and then.

While the two Eddies continued to shout at each other the rest of the group slowly backed away. Ben, who had surrendered his breakfast to Richie, muttered something about new batteries for the radio as he exited the room. The others crowded around the sink, suddenly everyone was eager to do the dishes, although it ended with Bill doing the rinsing and Stan doing the drying while Mike and Bev just watched them. Her arm snaked around his middle and he pulled her closer by her shoulder.

“Should we stop Richie?”, he asked after a while. He knew Richie was very capable to look after himself, but Mike couldn’t help but worry. What if he did get himself arrested like Stan said. What if he didn’t change his appearance fast enough? Or worse, what if someone saw him do it? “Maybe we could keep him busy today?”

“Don’t worry ab-b-bout it”, Bill said. “We’ll k-keep an eye on him and you focus on your luh-luh-l-l-little mission.”

Bev smiled up at him, resting her head on his shoulder. “We could do it in our sleep, right, Mike?”

He smiled back. “Right.”

They had been selected to go and stock up on food. Something they’d done so many times, it had become routine and still… Mike could not shake the feeling that someday it would go wrong. Sure, now that they had the money, they didn’t need to actually steal stuff anymore and that took a lot of the risk out of it, but they were never truly safe, were they?

Bill grabbed the rag from Stan to dry his hands, then pulled a map out of his back pocket, unfolding it and holding it against the cold stone wall. “This is the route”, he said, trailing a finger over the map. It was an old thing, torn and stained; some parts had been taped back together.

Mike followed Bill’s finger along the road and onto the nearby highway until it finally stopped at a spot. “There’s a g-g-g-gas station here. Richie went to check it out. You sh-shouldn’t have t-t-t-too much trouble there.”

“How far is it?”, Bev asked.

“20 miles, g-give or take.”

Bill folded the map up and gave it to Bev, then returned to washing the dishes.

“I’ll go find Ben and you can get the bike ready”, Mike told her.

She nodded. “Meet you outside.”

Before they could leave, Stan grabbed her hand. “Be careful, okay?”

“You know us”, she said.

Stan arched an eyebrow, then looked at Mike instead. “Make sure she is careful, yeah?”

Mike patted his shoulder good-naturedly and followed a grinning Beverly out of the kitchen. “See you later.”

There was a shouted goodbye from the Eddies at the table, but Mike wasn’t sure if it was the real Eddie or Richie’s Eddie. Probably Richie, Eddie being too riled up over his friend still refusing to change to a different face.

 

* * *

 

He found Ben in his room, sitting at his desk working on Richie’s old radio. He’d dismantled the back and was now doing god-knows-what to the inner workings. Mike was always mesmerized when he saw Ben at work. He somehow had a solution for almost every problem.

The walls of the tiny room were covered in magazine clippings, polaroid pictures and a few drawings that fluttered in the draft from the open window. The bed next to it was made, untouched, and Mike wondered if Ben had slept here or somewhere else tonight. It was no secret that he had trouble sleeping in the old asylum, claiming the place to be haunted. None of the others believed in ghosts, but Eddie had his own reasons for despising the place, maybe their shared hatred was what made them sleep in each other’s rooms so much.

Mike waited in the open door for Ben to carefully put his tools down and raise his head.

“Are you leaving already?”

“No point in dragging it out.”

“No, I guess not.”

He opened the first drawer of his desk and grabbed a big wad of cash. When Mike took it from him, he let his thumb run over the bills. He’d probably never achieve the same level of nonchalance about holding this much money as Ben. Money or the lack thereof had always been an issue in his life, even when he still lived on the farm with his parents. Sure, the farm brought in enough money for them to live, but when something happened out of the ordinary, it was tough. Once his dad broke his leg right before harvest season and they had to pay extra workers to come and help on top of paying the medical bills.

Ben opened another drawer, pulled out a M1911 pistol and held it out to him. Mike held his gaze for a moment, giving him time to put the gun away again, but when Ben didn’t he took it, checked that the safety was on and pushed it into his waistband.

“You know I’m supposed to play defense today, right?”

“Just in case”, Ben said. “To keep you safe.” _To keep her safe._ They both knew he was mostly talking about Bev, always worried she might not be coming back after one of these little excursions, but why say it out loud? Mike nodded in understanding, then slipped out the door.

 

* * *

 

Bev had already rolled the bike out to the front and handed him his helmet as he approached. She gave him a once over, studying him carefully. “He gave you a gun again, didn’t he?”

Mike nodded. There was no way she could’ve seen it, but then again Ben always made him bring a gun, she would’ve expected it.

“For someone who hates them that much he sure hands them out like candy.” He couldn’t tell if she was annoyed or not, or if she even understood the underlying meaning of it. Beverly was smart though, it was hard to believe, she hadn’t picked up on it.

“Well, I feel better having it”, he lied. His distaste for guns was not in rivalry with Ben’s, but Mike wasn’t that fond of them either. Sometimes it was necessary to know how to use one, but he still preferred not to shoot at anyone.

Bev gave him a long look before putting on her helmet and climbing onto the bike. “Sure you do.”

Mike climbed on behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist, not bothering to answer as his words would’ve been drowned out by the revving engine. Was his life always going to be like this? Now that he was with the others and they had a place to stay, he sometimes forgot they were all running from something, it would just be nice to be running towards something for a change.

He held onto Bev a little tighter, watching the scenery fly past them. They’d still lived in their cars when she and Ben had joined them.

 

* * *

 

_Stan looked longingly at the cabins in the distance and sighed. He didn’t say anything, but Mike had overheard him talking to Bill before, suggesting they break into one of them and sleep in a real bed for a change. Mike liked the idea, but didn’t mind sleeping in Richie’s van instead. It still beat sleeping on soggy carboard in an alley, hidden behind dumpsters._

_“I never thought I’d ever get to go to camp”, Richie said as he poked the small fire with a stick. They’d been driving all day and he was exhausted. Something Mike only knew because he was wearing his own face for a change. “Any of you guys ever go?”_

_Mike shook his head. There’d always been too much to do on the farm during summer and his parents had needed him there, he’d never really wanted to go anyway._

_“Twice”, Stan muttered. Richie perked up, grinning, probably already thought of a jab, but the look on Stan’s face made him reconsider. Mike had only been with them for a couple of months, but he had quickly picked up on the important stuff. All three of them had had trouble with their parents, Richie didn’t mind talking and joking about it although Mike wasn’t sure how much of it was the truth. Bill and Stan were more reserved, especially Stan. Bill would sometimes rant angrily about his parents, but Mike still didn’t know the whole story. It had to do with his powers and them blaming Bill for something that happened a long time ago, he never said what though._

_“Is that where you learned to make fires”, Richie asked, poking at it again. “They didn’t teach you well.”_

_“It’s a fire, isn’t it?”_

_“A baby fire.” Richie fumbled in his jacket until he found a pack of cigarettes, pushed one between his lips and lit it with the burning tip of his stick._

_The sun was setting over the tree tops on the other side of the lake, painting the sky a beautiful orange. Bill, who’d been sitting by the shore, gutting the single fish, Mike and Stan had managed to catch, walked over to them, dangling the fish from one finger._

_“Is it time yet to b-bring out the guitars and sing Kumb-b-b-baya?”, he asked, grabbed the stick from Richie and used it to spear the fish._

_Richie slowly blew out smoke. “Sorry to disappoint, Billy, but I don’t know that song.”_

_“No”, Stan said. “The only song you can play is Wonderwall. We know.”_

_“Aw, Sparkles, I didn’t know you were such a fan. You’re my number one groupie.” Richie winked at him suggestively. “Maybe you and Mike can switch sleeping arrangements tonight, huh?”_

_Mike looked tentatively from Richie to Stan to Bill and shook his head. Why was he like that? If Stan would bring up Richie’s horrible singing now, Mike couldn’t even blame him. Although that would probably only lead to Richie trying to prove them wrong and they’d have to suffer even more._

_“Don’t make me throw that guitar into the lake”, Stan muttered._

_“Come on”, Richie continued. His form rippled and the next moment there was a second Bill sitting next to Mike. “I can be whoever you want.”_

_“Beep beep, Richie”, Mike said._

_Bill just seemed to be amused by the whole thing. He sat down next to Stan and pulled his boyfriend into his side, pressing a kiss to his temple. “Why would he g-go for the knockoff, when he can h-h-have the ruh-ruh-real deal?”_

_Richie dropped Bill’s face and turned back into himself. “We can make it a threesome if you want in so desperately.”_

_“Don’t want to make Mike feel left out”, Stan mumbled, his face pressed into Bill’s neck._

_“I’m good, you guys have your fun.” Mike plucked the cigarette from Richie’s lips and took a drag. He’d been sharpening sticks with his pocket knife while they’d been talking and held them out to Richie know. “There you go.”_

_“Stealing my cigarette and presenting me with sharp objects. You truly know the way to my heart, Mikey”, he said, making Mike blush slightly. He then grabbed the pack of hotdogs he’d stolen at a gas station earlier, ripped it open and speared them on the sticks._

_“You’re a man of simple pleasures”, Stan said, sitting up a little to face them. “We’ve noticed that too.”_

_“Well, damn, Stanley, you just read me like an open book, do you?” He earned a small smile for that and maybe that was all Richie had wanted in the first place, because he fell silent afterwards. Mike took another drag of the cigarette before passing it back to him._

_It was nice to enjoy the silence for a moment, the only sound being the crackling fire. With the sun disappearing behind the horizon it was quickly getting cold, it was the beginning of November after all. Mike climbed into the van parked right behind him and when he came back out, he draped a blanket around Bill and Stan, one around Richie and kept one for himself. As they sat there, huddled together around the fire, Mike thought, he’d met them just in time. He now had people to look out for him, a place to sleep and probably wasn’t going to die of hypothermia this winter. Everything was good._

_Well, it was until Bill, who’d been watching the hotdogs and fish intently, jerked alert. Mike blinked at him in confusion, while Stan was immediately concerned._

_“We g-g-got to go!”_

_Bill and Stan were on their feet while Mike still tried to understand what was going on. He knew about Bill’s powers, of course, but it still took him a moment to put two and two together._

_“Get in the c-cars now!”_

_“What is it?”, Richie asked as he rescued the half-cooked food before Bill stomped out the fire._

_“I don’t know, Richie! That’s n-not how it works.”_

_Stan was already sitting in the passenger seat of Bill’s truck, shouting at them to hurry up, while Bill started to pull on Richie. He wasn’t going to leave the food, which Mike actually was very grateful for. It was good food._

_“For fucks sake, Richie! Just leave it!”, Stan yelled._

_Richie looked over at him, then at something across the lake, in an instant the lanky boy with the huge glasses was replaced by a stunning young woman with jetblack hair, Richie’s go-to face. Mike followed his gaze, there were people over there. “Too late”, he muttered._

_“We’re luh-leaving!”, Bill yelled, letting go of Richie and running towards his truck._

_It was Mike’s job to pull Richie now, who followed him eventually but unwilling, his eyes still fixed on the people on the other side of the lake. Mike glanced over his shoulder. There were so many of them now, two of them clearly running from the rest. They were both clad completely in white, short haired and was that…? Yes, definitely a gun in the hands of the second one, but their pursuers had them too._

_“Bill”, Richie shouted, twisting away from Mike. “We need a shield!”_

_“No kidding!”_

_“No, I mean, they need one.” He pointed, but Bill just shook his head._

_“That’s who we’re t-t-trying to g-get away from!”_

_“So are they!”, Richie insisted, throwing his arm out more insistently. Finally, Bill did look, but only shook his head again. “Fuck you, Bill!”_

_He said it with so much meaning that it made Mike recoil. Richie said a lot of shit and insulted them here and there, but he never meant it. Bill stared at him for a moment so long, Mike feared he’d get in his truck and that’d be it. He and Stan would be gone, but then he sighed and did as Richie asked._

_They watched as the pursuers ran into the invisible barrier Bill had put up. Mike could finally haul Richie into his van and watched as Stan slid into the driver’s seat, allowing Bill to keep his shield up as they drove. He wasn’t sure Richie had the right idea about helping those people. It was a big risk to take and if Bill wasn’t willing to do it, then it was probably best to leave it. It was too late now though as Richie steered towards the still running figures._

_As they got closer Mike saw it was a boy and a girl around their age, dressed in what looked like hospital scrubs. The boy was a little on the heavy side and completely out of breath, when Richie pulled up next to them and Mike leaned out of the open slide door. “Get in!”_

_The boy looked to the girl with short, red hair, waiting for her approval perhaps._

_“Get in!”, Richie shouted. “Don’t think Bill can hold them off for much longer.”_

_The girl nodded at the boy, who then finally took Mike’s outstretched hand and let himself be pulled inside, the gun clattering onto the floor of the van as he did.  She jumped in herself, ignoring Mike’s attempt to help her. They sat there, panting and eyeing them warily as Richie sped up and they left their pursuers far behind._

_“Are you hurt?”, Mike asked, when it became clear neither of them was going to speak. He moved to one of cabinets. “We should have some first aid stuff around here.”_

_“No.” She shook her head. “Where are you taking us?”_

_Mike shrugged, climbed into the passenger seat and got buckled in. He could see Richie was just following Bill’s truck at this point and figured it was best this way. Bill would know once they were out of danger._

_“Your friend”, the boy said. His voice barely above a whisper. “He’s like… like us?”_

_Richie looked over his shoulder, arching a perfectly shaped eyebrow at him. “You have powers?”_

_Mike felt his stomach turn. “Those were ASHA people?” He’d hoped to never see them again in his life and now they’d probably be on all of their asses._

_“Yeah, you know them?”_

_“Unfortunately.” He brazed himself for prying questions, but they never came. Maybe they could connect the dots on their own. The only one he’d told was Richie because he’d shared his past with him pretty early in their friendship, when Mike had had trouble falling asleep one night. There was just something about Richie that made him trust him. He trusted Bill and Stan too, but with those two he couldn’t help but feel a little left out. No one would ever be as close to Bill as Stan and vice versa._

_“How about names, huh?”, Richie asked cheerily from behind the wheel. Probably sensing Mike needed a change of topic. “I’m Richie and this here is Micycle.”_

_“Mike”, he quickly corrected._

_“Beverly”, the girl said and then looked at the boy as if she didn’t know his name either._

_“Ben”, he muttered._

* * *

 

Bev pulled into the gas station, waiting for Mike to dismount before she did. There were cars zipping past occasionally, but they seemed to be the only customers around. Well, the gas station wasn’t very inviting with the faded letters on the signs, oil-stained cement and smudgy windows. The only other vehicle was a rusty old pick-up truck parked next to the building, but it looked like it would fall apart as soon as someone tried to drive it.  

Running a hand through her short hair, Bev turned to him. “You ready?”

“Yeah.”

She took his hand and pulled him along, not letting go. He liked holding hands with Bev, her hands so small and delicate in his own and somehow always cold; her cheeks could be flushed with heat and she’d still have icy hands.

The door creaked as Bev pushed it open, but the cashier – a guy in his late 50s with a scraggly grey beard and a potbelly – didn’t look up from the paper he was reading. Although he looked like a rundown Santa Claus, he didn’t strike Mike as the friendliest person, so he was glad when he didn’t acknowledge them.

The selection wasn’t so great, but what did they expect from a gas station. Bev still managed to fill his arms with various snacks and somehow succeeded in covering all the important food groups. There was a lot of Reese’s cups, he noticed, which just so happened to be Ben’s favourites. Didn’t seem like she was too bothered about the gun then.  

“We’ll need some cigarettes too”, she said, stacking some frozen meals on top of the stuff he was already holding. It was getting more and more difficult for him to see over it now. “Ben’s just don’t taste right, you know? Rich and I just don’t have the heart to tell him.”

To him they all tasted the same, but he only stole their cigarettes once in a while, what would he know about the right taste? It’s not like they were supposed to taste particularly good.

While they made their way back to the register, Beverly loaded her own arms full of stuff. The cashier only looked up, when they dumped everything on the counter in front of him, and he didn’t look happy about it. His grey eyes scanned first Bev, then Mike and then looked back at her with an expression that was somewhere between contempt and disbelief.

Bev smiled at him regardless. “We’ll take four packs of Marlboros too.”

“Aren’t you too pretty to be smoking?”, he asked as he placed the cigarettes in front of them.

Mike ignored the comment, busying himself with packing their stuff in the backpacks they’d brought as he was ringing them up.

“Far as I know appearance doesn’t influence smoking habits.”

“Looks matter a lot”, he grumbled. Mike almost snorted. If he really believed that, maybe he should do something about his own appearance; take a shower to start with and then shave that ugly beard.

He felt Bev’s fingers curl around his bicep and looked up for a second. Had he missed something? The cashier’s eyes bore into him now as if he had read his thoughts, but Mike was fairly sure he hadn’t. Or maybe he had… maybe this was what their future looked like: working somewhere in a rundown shop always afraid ASHA would find them.

“You two together?”

Bev pressed closer to him. “Yeah.”

“Lot of food for just two people.”

Slinging the first backpack on his shoulder, Mike quickly filled the second one. “I’ve got a big appetite”, he said, which was apparently the wrong thing to say, because the guy looked about ready to throw something at him.

Sensing the same thing, Bev pulled a few bills out of her leather jacket. “How much is it going to be? We really have to get going.”

He glared at them for a while as if he was considering throwing them out instead. Mike handed Bev the second bag and she shouldered it, making it obvious to the cashier they were leaving with their stuff paid for or not.

With a sigh, he told them the amount, but Mike hadn’t even had time to push his hands into his pocket, when he suddenly lost his balance and stumbled against the counter. Next to him, Bev yelped as the same thing happened to her.

The door was swinging back and forth, creaking on the hinges and now there were two kids standing behind them. A girl with long, red hair spilling out from a yellow beanie, who was counting a couple of dollar bills, and a shorter girl with short brown curls and a look like she was ready to snap someone’s neck. It was an odd expression on someone who looked an awful lot like a cherub just without the wings and with more clothes.

“My money”, Bev whispered, looking down at her now empty hands.

“Get the stuff”, the cherub told the redhead without taking her eyes off them.

“You could at least say please”, she responded, rolling her eyes and then she disappeared. Just like that, gone, but Mike could still hear her and the next second she was back, her arms filled with various snacks.

“You gotta pay for that!”, the cashier shouted.

Mike stepped in front of Bev, shielding her with his body in case those two tried anything. Since Eddie, they hadn’t met another Super and as much as he didn’t believe these two were with ASHA – because they didn’t employ kids that robbed stores – he didn’t trust them either.

The redhead snorted. “No, we don’t.”

“You’re one of those freaks, aren’t you? Throwing fire balls out of your hands and shit.”

The cherub stepped forward. “What did you say?”

“El, just drop it.”

“You’re one too?”

“Maybe”, Mike said quietly, “it’s not the best idea to anger someone with powers.”

The cashier scoffed. “I’m not afraid of some little girls. And who asked you anyway, boy?”

Mike rolled his eyes. If that guy ended up getting hurt or killed, he wouldn’t feel too bad about it. At the term ‘little girl’, he could feel Bev tense up. If he managed to piss her off enough, he’d soon have another Super to worry about and Mike didn’t know what kind of powers the other girl had, but he was willing to bet that a furious Bev was worse than those two.

“El”, the redhead said, rolling her eyes. “I’m leaving now!”

She turned on her heels and walked out of the door while the other one, El, kept glowering at them. It took her a good ten seconds before she followed her friend. As soon as the door swung closed behind her, Bev started to hurry after them. Mike pulled a few bills out of his pocket and slapped them on the counter, then hurried to catch up with Bev.

To his surprise the two Supers were still there, hurriedly stuffing their stolen goods into a gym bag. At the sound of their approaching footsteps, they looked up.

“What about my money? Aren’t you going to return that?”, Bev asked, stopping a few feet away from them, hands on her hips.

“Sorry”, the redhead said, not sounding sorry at all. “We need it.”

“So do we.”

Mike tried not to look too confused even though he had no idea what Bev was getting at. Sure, he wasn’t thrilled about having some of their money stolen, but they still had more than enough and it wasn’t like Ben couldn’t get them more.

El exchanged one look with her friend before she stepped in front of her. “Just go away.”

“Or what?”

“Bev”, Mike started. It was just a few dollars, definitely not worth getting into a fight with some Supers over. Especially not with the cops on their way; the cashier was probably on the phone with them right now.

Ignoring him, Bev continued to move towards them just as the redhead pulled the bag closed and threw it at her friend, but she wasn’t paying attention, her eyes flitting from Bev to the beat-up truck, the bag landing at her feet.

The redhead went to her friend, picked up the bag and held it out to her. “Take it and let’s get out of here!”

Apparently Mike wasn’t the only one who was ignored by his friends, because El did not do as she was told and Bev did not stop advancing on them. Instead the gaze of the shorter girl now locked onto the car, staring intently, and then with a sharp jerk of her head, the truck flew towards them. She had clearly only tried to get it between herself and Bev, but misjudged her own power or the truck’s weight, because it skittered directly towards Bev. Mike could see the exact moment El realized her mistake, eyes wide, both arms flying up to stop the out of control car, but it was only a second before it slammed into Bev, nothing to be done.

There was a strangled sound coming from the redhead, probably the scream stuck in her throat, when she realized Bev was fine. The front of the truck had crumpled around Bev’s outstretched hand, the hood popped open and the lights shattered. He let out a sigh of relief. He’d been almost sure Bev would be alright, her power was super strength not super reflexes.

She brushed the rust and flecks of paint from her hands as she turned back to the girls, who were staring at her with shocked expressions. The short one snapped out of it first, grabbed the bag from her friend and slung it over her shoulder. She threw one look back at Mike and Bev before jumping onto her friend’s back and uttering one word: “ASHA.”

For a brief moment Mike could see the same loathing in her eyes that he’d seen on his friend’s faces whenever the Agency for Super Human Affairs was mentioned. The same emotions he felt when he thought of them. Even now there was the familiar sensation of his guts twisting, the heat simmering deep inside of him just waiting for him to let go and lash out at ASHA, but also the clammy hands, the racing heart at the mere thought of having to face them.

“N-…” The girls were gone before he could manage to correct them. He didn’t know them and they’d probably never meet again, but it still made him feel wrong that they now associated him with those bastards.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The news of other Supers shake up both groups.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first time writing for the ST kids and I'm still getting the hang of it...
> 
> WARNING for Abuse and implied Sexual Abuse in this chapter

After setting the empty cans up on the steps of the old street car, Dustin walked back to them, almost tripping over a branch sticking out of the thick, leafy underground. The three other boys snickered.

“Let’s see who’s the best shot then”, he huffed as he reclaimed his spot next to Mike.

“We already know it’s me”, Lucas said, smiling crookedly.

Dustin groaned. “No, we don’t know that. That’s the whole point of this.”

“We kind of do”, Will said quietly, earning himself a glare from Dustin and a wink from Lucas. At least someone here knew the truth. Dustin was just pigheaded and liked to make everything into a challenge, always eager to prove himself. Out of all of them, he was by far the best shot, and maybe that was mostly due to having the practice, but part of it was pure talent, but if Dustin wanted to lose so badly, who was he to argue. If El and Max were here, there might be some real competition, but the girls were still out on their little shopping trip.

“Who should go first?”, Mike asked.

Lucas grabbed the sling shot from his back pocket and held it out to him. “Why don’t you?”

Mike shrugged and took it from him. Lucas started throwing and catching the pebbles in his hand as he watched Mike loading the sling shot with his own and aiming at the cans. They were pretty far away and Mike and Will were the two people who had the least practice, therefore Lucas was not surprised at all, when the first shot landed on the forest floor still almost three feet away from the rusty street car.

“Maybe you need to work on your spaghetti arms a little”, Lucas teased, squeezing Mike’s bicep. Not that there was much to squeeze there.

Mike shook him off. “That doesn’t count.”

“Sure it counts”, Dustin said. “We never said anything about practice shots.”

“We could all get a practice shot”, Will suggested.

Lucas shrugged. “If you need one.”

Mike glared at him and loaded the sling shot again. “No practice shots”, he grumbled as he took aim.

This time the stone reached the street car, but hit the peeling green paint of the door instead of the cans. Dustin snickered. Mike’s brows knitted together as he concentrated hard on making the next shot count. It landed on the steps in between the cans. If he’d wanted to Lucas could’ve given him some pointers as it wasn’t hard to tell where Mike was messing up, but he was pretty sure his friend wouldn’t accept any help even if he offered. Predictably the last one didn’t hit a can either, which was mostly due to Mike using too much force and the pebble flying over the cans and disappearing somewhere inside.

“Maybe it’s harder than it looks”, Will said, always trying to be diplomatic.

Mike shoved the sling shot into his hands. “Let’s see you do it then.”

Will shrugged. Lucas had spent some time teaching him how to use the slingshot right after he’d gotten it. Will and El had been the only one willing to listen to him, all the others just thought it wasn’t that hard and they could figure it out themselves, which had been true for Dustin and Max, not so much for Mike.

Despite Will putting in the effort to learn, he’d gotten bored with it quickly. It came as no surprise to Lucas, that he only managed to hit one of the cans, but it was still better than Mike, who grumbled something inaudible like the sore loser that he was.

“Let me show you guys how it’s done”, Dustin said, taking the slingshot next.

He let the first pebble fly and hit the can on the far right perfectly. He turned to grin at them smugly as he reloaded the slingshot.

“That’s one shot”, Lucas said. “Stop acting like you’ve already won.”

“Getting nervous, are you?”

He scoffed. “As if.”

“As if”, Dustin mocked, turning his attention back on the targets. As he took aim, he closed his left eye, the tip of his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth. The pebble sailed through the air as he released, grazing one of the cans in the middle, but it still had enough momentum to make it fall. Lucas suppressed a groan, that wasn’t even talent, that was just pure luck. If he got all four cans out of pure luck, Lucas was going to be pissed. Dustin would never shut up about it, claiming he was in fact the best shot or at least on the same level as him and it just wasn’t true.

“Wow, that was lucky”, Will said. “Maybe you can get all four.”

“That had nothing to do with luck.”

“Yeah right”, Mike said. “As if you did that on purpose. You almost missed.”

Dustin rolled his eyes at him. “Almost. Unlike someone who had trouble even hitting the street car.”

“My hand slipped!”

“Alright”, Dustin laughed. “It slipped.”

“Funny that I didn’t see it slip when I was right next to you though”, Lucas interjected.

“Yeah, you should get your eyes checked.”

“I have a check-up coming up. I’ll just do it then.”

Mike snorted. “Make sure to pick up your dry cleaning while you’re out there.”

“What about you? Busy week at the office?”

At this point Lucas didn’t even know why they still did this, if it was a joke or if they were mocking each other for making a stupid comment. It was just instinct to go along and try to one-up the other in ridiculous, meaningless things that people out there did. It was hard for him to imagine ever doing mundane things like that, when he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d stayed in one spot for more than a week.

“Guys, shut up!”, Dustin interrupted before Mike could come up with a reply. “I’m trying to concentrate here.”

“Oh sorry”, Lucas said, grinning. “Keep trying, you’ll get there eventually.”

“Want me to aim at your big head instead of the cans?”

“Need a bigger target? Is it too difficult for you?”

Will sighed. “You know we’d already be done with this thing if you’d all stop talking, right?”

Dustin smiled and released the third pebble that made another can fall. “Yeah.”

Without hesitation, he reloaded, but before he could take aim, the leaves flew up around them. A gust of wind hit them, not strong enough to make them stumble, but certainly enough to blow Dustin’s cap off his head. He only spared the girls a quick glance as he bent down and picked it up.

Something was wrong. He could see it on their faces immediately. Max was a little paler than usual, and El’s eyes flitted from one boy to the next, resting on him a little longer before coming to a stop on Mike. It was almost as if she was making sure they were all there.

“What happened?”, Mike asked. Immediately stepping forward to get closer to El, not touching her, but only speaking to her all the same.

Lucas found Max’s eyes, silently asking her if she was okay. There was always a certain alertness to them, but now it seemed like a storm was raging in them, her mind running at the same speed as her feet.

“There were other people there”, she said.

“ASHA!”, El said. “They had powers. They cornered us. They were ASHA.”

“I just said, they could not be, but you know them better of course.”

El gave her a pointed look, then turned to look at him. ASHA was not a joking matter, if El said it was them, he believed her. They’d found them, but how? They’d been so careful. It could not be a coincidence, that there were ASHA agents waiting for them at whatever store the girls had been at. Someone must’ve followed them here, might even be around right now.

His eyes darted from the surrounding trees to the old trains and street cars in various stages of deterioration. Although he couldn’t spot anyone, he still felt exposed. “We should leave.”

“Yes”, El agreed. “Right now.”

“Slow down”, Mike said. “If they knew where we are, they’d already be on us. Maybe you lost them on your way here, but if we all hit the road now, they’ll definitely find us. They’ll be on the streets and in the cities looking for us.”

“What are you saying?” Lucas didn’t want to stay here a moment longer. If ASHA was around, he needed to be as far away from here as possible. There was no way, he was just going to sit around and let them take him alive. He was not going back.

“I’m saying we should think this through before we do anything.”

“They could be here any minute. We don’t have time for that!”, El disagreed.

“Maybe you could help”, Dustin said, looking at Will. “Maybe you can see something.”

The shorter boy hesitated, but then he nodded. “What were they like? Do you know any names?”

“A boy, about Dustin’s height, broad, black, short cropped hair, our age. A girl, a little taller than me, short red hair, skinny, pale and freckly, also our age. I think he called her Bev”, Max said, looking at El who nodded in agreement.

“Our age?”, Dustin repeated. “Aren’t they a bit young to be agents?”

As long as someone was useful to ASHA, they wouldn’t care about their age. If it fit their cause, they’d put a kid in the battlefield; they probably already had. If they were just after them to kill them, Lucas wouldn’t fear them as much, but the thought of them manipulating and using him for their own goals was worse. Who knew where he would be now if he hadn’t been able to escape the facility two years ago. He could almost imagine it, but tried not to.

Will sat down, tugging his legs underneath him and closed his eyes. He’d once had a particularly strong vision while standing up and had managed to split open his forehead, when it made him lose his balance. From then on, he tried to always be sitting, not that his visions had gotten the memo. Although Will could control them to some degree, when he needed or wanted one just like right now, he still got visions at random too.  

They all watched him in silence, even though there wasn’t much to see. Just Will’s eyes moving rapidly behind the closed lids like always, but then deep lines formed between his brows and around his mouth, almost as if the vision was hurting him. This sometimes happened, but usually they didn’t have such a strong impact on Will.

Mike immediately dropped to his knees, grabbing onto Will’s shoulder, shaking him lightly even though they all knew there was nothing they could do. When Will had a vision, he was stuck in it until it was over, no amount of shouting or shaking would pull him out of it before it had finished.

When he finally opened his eyes, he was gasping for air, his chest rising and falling. For a moment Lucas could’ve sworn to see tears glistening in his eyes, but then he must’ve blinked them away. Will stared at Mike for a long moment, before Dustin knelt down on the other side of him. “Are you okay? What did you see?”

Will’s eyes flickered to Dustin, then back to Mike and eventually to Max, El and Lucas. He shook his head. “I don’t know… it was….” He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. “It wasn’t them.”

“But what did you see?”, Lucas asked. If it triggered such a reaction from Will, it couldn’t be good.

“It was confusing, probably one of those visions that don’t come true”, he said, but Lucas noticed he avoided looking at any of them. He then held out his hand for Dustin to take. “Help me try again?”

“Sure.” Dustin’s face lit up like it always did when any of them asked for his help and grabbed Will’s hand with both of his.

Dustin nodded at him encouragingly as Will closed his eyes again, trying for another vision. Dustin’s powers worked differently on all of them. For Will it was just easier to navigate the visions and control them, while it made El able to lift bigger things or more things at once and it sped up Max even more. With no other Supers around, it made sense that Dustin had spent most of his life not knowing about his powers.

Lucas was watching Will closely now, looking for a similar reaction as before, but this time his face remained completely still. What had he seen before that upset him so much? Will had visions that didn’t come true a lot, or visions about the past too, but Lucas wondered why he wouldn’t just tell them what it had been about.

The next vision didn’t last long; after less than a minute, he opened his eyes again. “I think I saw them, but it didn’t look like they were anywhere near here”, he said. “They were with a group of other kids at some abandoned building. Didn’t look much like anything ASHA would do to me.”

“You think it’s just a coincidence that we run into other Supers?”, El asked, still not convinced.

“That’s what happened with Max and Dustin”, Will said, shrugging. “It’s not that unlikely.”

“But the girl was confronting us! She knew something.”

“We did steal their money”, Max pointed out.

“It was different.”

The three boys got up, brushing dirt off their jeans. “You still want to leave, don’t you?”, Mike asked.

El nodded.

“I do too”, he said. Even if Will was right and they weren’t with ASHA, they were still trespassing on private property and abandoned trains and street cars weren’t exactly his preferred place to stay. And Will could not be completely sure. ASHA could’ve changed their way of operating and he’d rather be safe than sorry.

“Alright”, Mike agreed. “We’ve been talking about moving south anyway, but we’ll need to find a new car.”

The old one had been reported stolen and they’d had to abandon it in the last city. Since then they’d mostly travelled on foot and snuck onto a train or two.

“I can go and look for one”, Max said, picking up the bag with the supplies, opening it and pulling out a can of coke. “But I’ll have some food first.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me”, Dustin said, walking over to her to sort through the bag himself.

Lucas pushed the cans away they had been shooting at earlier and took a seat on the steps of the street car. Max sat down next to him, silently offering him a sip of her coke.

“Are you okay?”, he asked quietly so the others wouldn’t hear. “They didn’t attack you, did they?”

“No. El accidentally launched a truck at the girl, she stopped it. That’s all that happened.”

“She stopped a truck? With her mind?”

Max shook her head. “With her hand.”

Had there been a girl like that with ASHA? He tried to think back, but in his time at the facility, they’d been very careful not to let the Supers mingle. The only way he had known about El had been, because of their adjoining rooms. Late at night, when everything was quiet, they had been able to talk to each other through the vents. He’d caught glimpses of other subjects when he was led to and from different rooms, but he couldn’t remember a girl that fit Max’s description.

 

_“Lucas?” Her soft voice drifted through the air vent underneath the bed._

_He’d been lying awake, staring at the ceiling for a small eternity, waiting for her to return to her room. Since he had no watch, he didn’t know the time, but it must’ve been late. They’d brought him back from his training hours ago._

_Lucas rolled onto his side, so the camera in the corner of his room wouldn’t catch him moving his lips. “I’m here.”_

_“Are we like them?”_

_His immediate response was No. They weren’t like ASHA at all. He would never lock anyone up, stick them with needles like a lab rat and make them perform tricks. Ma’am – he’d not earned the right to know her name, he probably never would – had made him build walls out of nothing and tearing them down all day yesterday. Today she wanted him to create earthquakes, something he’d never done before and when she realized he was holding back, because he was scared he’d make the building collapse, she’d shocked him. No, he wasn’t like that._

_“How do you mean?”, he asked._

_“Papa said we are not people. We are special. We are more.”_

_He cringed at the nickname. Lucas had once asked Eleven why she called him Papa, which had confused her a whole lot. That was the night he’d found out, she didn’t have parents, that the facility and ASHA was all that she’d ever known. He had tried to explain to her what a real father was and that Papa wasn’t anything like that, but he wasn’t sure if she had understood._

_“Of course he would say that”, he whispered. “To them we’re just our powers. We don’t even have names here.”_

_She was the only one who called him by his name and in return he tried to give her her own name. Something that wasn’t Eleven, but they had yet to find something that she liked._

_“I like being something else”, she said. “Not people.”_

_“But you are human and so am I. Just because this place is filled with garbage people, doesn’t mean there aren’t good people out in the world.”_

_For a moment it was quiet, all he could hear were the footsteps of one of the guards in the hall outside. When they disappeared, her voice returned. “Do you know them? The good people.”_

_He thought of his parents and his sister. With all the time he had on his hands, lying in this empty room and thinking about how he’d gotten here, he didn’t even know how he felt about them anymore. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that this is not what they had wanted for him, that they hadn’t called ASHA if they’d known this was the result, but it didn’t change the fact that they had._

_“I thought I did.”_

“They won’t find us.” Max looked at him as if she knew exactly what he was thinking about. “Even if they do, they won’t take us. It’s six of us, we can fight them.”

He smiled, admiring her optimism and wished he could feel so sure himself, but Max had never been in contact with ASHA, they might not even know she existed and so she didn’t know the extent of what they could do. Sure, most of them were ordinary people, but they had the numbers and weapons and tranquilizers that they weren’t afraid to use and they were still almost kids who’d never used their powers to fight, well… most of them hadn’t. But Lucas didn’t feel like telling her any of that, hopefully she’d never know ASHA as well as he did.

His hand found hers, intertwining their fingers and squeezing lightly. “No, they won’t take us.” Not alive at least.

* * *

 

They were all outside, when they drove up the winded road towards the asylum. The van and the truck had been brought to the front. She waited for Mike to get off, before she put the bike on its kickstand and followed him. Her eyes found Bill’s first and he reminded her of her father then, ready to give her a lecture about worrying him. _I worry about you, Bevvie._ She quickly looked away, focusing on Richie instead, who stood behind Bill as himself, not wearing someone else’s face and smiled big.

“What the hell happened?”, Eddie snapped. “Bill had us just about ready to go on a rescue mission.”

“We ran into other Supers at the gas station”, Mike said.

“Nothing really happened”, she quickly interjected. There was no need to worry the others and they definitely would if she allowed Mike to tell the story. Sometimes he was too honest for his own good. “They stole some stuff and then they were gone.”

“But I f-f-felt you were in d-danger.”

“That would be the truck flying towards Bev”, Mike said, ignoring the pointed look she shot him. They both knew it had been an accident, that the girl hadn’t tried to hurt her, why bring it up?

Richie snorted. “I see, you want to have all the fun for yourself.”

“It’s not fun, Richie!”, Eddie said.

“Fighting with Supers is dangerous”, Ben agreed. Bev felt his eyes on her, but didn’t care to meet his gaze and see the disappointment there. It wasn’t like she’d done it on purpose.

“That depends on what they can do, doesn’t it? If I wanted to pick a fight with Big Bill over here, what is he going to do that’s so dangerous?” Richie winked at Bill, who only gave him a disapproving look. Maybe he couldn’t do anything to hurt Richie with his power, but he could make sure Richie didn’t come anywhere near him. “What powers did they have, Bev?”

“Speed and… what do you call it again, when th-…”

“Telekinesis”, Mike said. “She threw a truck at Bev with her mind.”

“Awesome!”

“Richie!” Bill, Ben and Mike shouted almost at the same time, but Bev saw Stan stifle a giggle and couldn’t hide her smile herself.

“Like I said, nothing happened. I have to agree it’s pretty cool”, she said. Both speed and telekinesis were pretty impressive. Now Bev was content with her own power, but if she could choose another one, both of those powers were up there along with flight and fire manipulation.

“Someone at-t-t-t-t-tacked you, Beverly”, Bill said sternly. “That’s not no-nothing.”

“It was an accident.” When he didn’t seem convinced, she turned to Mike. “Tell him, it was an accident.”

Mike sighed. “I mean, it was, but… she wouldn’t have moved the truck at all, if you hadn’t gone after them.”

Of course, he had to bring that up when everyone was around. She wasn’t mad at him, just wished, he’d asked her about it when they were alone or at least not while Bill and Ben were still ready to go off any minute.

She should’ve known better than to corner another Super like that, but there had been something about the girl with the curly hair, that she couldn’t quite pinpoint. Maybe she’d seen her before, but neither her name nor her power rang any bells. She probably just looked like someone from her old school or something.

“She just looked familiar”, she said. “I thought I knew her.”

“She didn’t seem to know you.”

“Yeah, I guess I was wrong.”

Not wanting to talk about it anymore, she slung both backpacks over her shoulder and started to roll the motorcycle to the back of the building. She knew they were just worried and protective of her, but it still made her feel weak in the knees, her stomach churning as if she was going to throw up. _I worry about you, Bevvie._ It had been years and she could still hear his voice in her head as clear as if he was standing right behind her.

 

* * *

 

_She jumped at the sound of the door being closed and locked behind her. He’d been waiting for her. Her fingers curled around the straps of her backpack as she swallowed and turned around to face him. He was still in his overalls from work, his scent a mixture of sweat and cleaning agents. She didn’t dare look him in the eyes and stared at her feet instead._

_“Where have you been?”_

_“School.”_

_His flat hand struck her cheek so hard it made her stumble, but she gritted her teeth and kept staring down, trying to ignore the stinging pain in her face._

_“Don’t lie to me! School ended over an hour ago.”_

_And she’d stayed behind because of this. Every day she had to tell herself that it was only one more year. Once she’d graduated, she could leave him, but coming home to this made it hard to look on the bright side._

_He stepped into her space, his hand heavy on her shoulder, his head bowed so his nose was almost touching the top of her head. Bev tried to remain as still as she could, not wanting to anger him even more. It wasn’t the blows that she feared, not hiding the marks with long sleeves and leggings underneath her skirts, not covering a bruised eye or a split lip with makeup. It was what came after her father’s rage that made her dream of flying out of the door and never coming back. His way of saying sorry. The words whispered directly into her ear in between pants of hot breath, the wandering hands, him under her skin. His smell, his touch, his taste lingering for days afterwards._

_He inhaled the scent of her hair and as he did, his fingers dug into her shoulders. “You smoked.”_

_She was seventeen, what was it to him if she smoked. If he was worried about her health, the cigarettes wouldn’t be what he should be mad about, but he knew that. They both understood why he was so bothered by her smoking._

_“Daddy.” Her voice shook. “Please…”_

_“We’ve talked about this, Bevvie. Smoking is bad for you.”_

_His left hand slowly crept towards her throat, closing around it and squeezed lightly. Bev blinked the tears away and focused on a stain on his right shoe. There was an unspoken rule about not using her powers even though they both knew she could easily free herself from his grip, but she didn’t dare. Not anymore._ “I’m the only one who’ll put up with you, Bevvie. Don’t you know what happens to people like you? They get turned into the authorities and are never heard from again. That’s not what you want, is it?”

_His grip tightened, cutting off the airflow completely now. She’d grown up believing him, when he said, he was the only one who could ever love her, that he loved her despite all her shortcomings and her abnormalities. But even if that was true, she’d rather be dead than endure his love any longer._

_Her hand shot up, grabbed his wrist and pulled him off her with no effort. “No, Daddy!”_

_She brazed herself before looking up. His face was a grimace of hurt and anger, nothing good ever followed this expression. She was about to loosen her grip, when his other fist collided painfully with her head, sending her flying._

_“You little bitch! Don’t you ever use your powers on me again!”, he snarled._

_It took her only a second to realize she was lying on the wooden boards of the living room, but it was a second too long, a second that allowed her father to get on top of her, both hands wrapped around her neck, simultaneously choking her and smashing her head into the floor._

_“You know what they do, Bevvie!” Her vision was starting to blur. “They kill you! This is the only place you’re safe. I’m the only person who cares about you, Bevvie, don’t you understand?”_

_Then why couldn’t he stop caring? Whatever the world had in store for her out there, it couldn’t be worse than this, could it? Her head felt like someone had taken an axe to it and split it open. The way her hair stuck to the back of her head, wet and warm, she knew that wasn’t so far from the truth._

_Before he could beat the strength out of her, she pushed him off. It was the first time in a long while that she’d used her powers on anyone and she was surprised herself, when he hit the wall on the other side of the room. There was a sickening crunch as he collided with it and slid down, landing on the floor in a heap._

_Her vision was still blurry as she got to her feet. As she carefully made her way over to him, she tripped and fell to her knees. This was it then, he’d be on her and finish what he started, but to her surprise, he was still sitting at the wall, when she got back up._

_“Da-daddy?”, she called softly. No answer._

_She hesitated before crouching down in front of him. What if he was just pretending? What if he grabbed her? What if…?_

_“Daddy?”, she repeated. Quieter than before._

_She nudged his shoulder, but there was no answer, just his head lolling from side to side as if all his muscles had disappeared._

_“Daddy.” Her voice was barely a whisper now that she knew he wasn’t going to answer. Tears started to build up, the relief she’d expected never setting in. What had she done?_ They’ll kill you, Bevvie! I’m the only one who loves you!

 

* * *

 

“You’re miles away.”

She blinked, realizing she’d been hovering the little brush in front of Richie’s face for the past few seconds instead of applying the eyeshadow.

“Sorry.”

He smirked, grabbed the brush from her and reached for the small mirror on her desk. They were sitting on her bed, knees pressed together, makeup spread out around them. She watched as he held the mirror out to see himself and clumsily applied the eyeshadow, then let it fall again.

“I’ll lose an eye if I try this shit with the eyeliner”, he said. “Then I’ll be blind for real. I hate this face.”

Bev grabbed his chin and searched for the eyeliner. “I love it and it’s not a face, Rich. It’s you.”

He mumbled something under his breath, but she let it go. It was an open secret that Richie wasn’t too fond of his real appearance. He’d only told Bev once about all the things that were wrong with it, usually he just made jokes and deflected. She viewed it as a win that he didn’t mind any of them seeing him as himself anymore though; she’d hadn’t seen his true face for the first three months of knowing him.

Richie closed his eyes, as she applied the eyeliner. “Are you still thinking about the gas station Supers?”

“No”, she said truthfully. “It’s just… a weird day, I guess.”

“Worried about ASHA?”

“Not more than usual.” She recapped the eyeliner and held out the mirror for Richie. “Want me to do the lips too?”

He looked at himself in the mirror briefly, then shook his head. Makeup was their thing, something that had started in the first week of knowing each other, when Bev had still believed Richie to be a woman in his early twenties. He’d seen how miserable she’d been and had wanted to cheer her up with the makeup, only for her to find out that Richie couldn’t do makeup for shit. She hadn’t been an expert either, but together they’d gotten the hang of it and they both enjoyed the quiet talks that came with it.

“I’d look like a fucking clown.”

“Hey! Don’t insult me!” Before he could open his mouth to protest and say something bad about himself, she continued: “And you look great, okay? You look pretty.”

Richie snorted, but he couldn’t hide the faint blush that appeared on his cheeks.

Bev found his glasses somewhere in the mess surrounding them and put them on him. “Here. Now you can take a better look.”

“I like the purple”, he said after another brief glance at the mirror. “Your turn now?”

She nodded, scooting closer to him again and watched as he sorted through the makeup until he found something he liked.

“Again?”, she asked, smiling at the green and golden eyeshadow in his hand. It was almost empty, because he usually picked that one.

He grinned. “That shit is great! You should see the way Benny looks at you when you wear it. Although it’s not much different from the way he usually looks at you.”

Bev poked him in the stomach. “Stop!”

“Sure, sure, let’s keep pretending it’s not happening. Got it.”

When he moved closer with the brush, she closed her eyes, enjoying the dusting on her lids and the warmth of Richie’s hand on her cheek. She wasn’t an idiot. Everyone with eyes knew that Ben had a crush on her; subtlety wasn’t one of his strong suits. She just didn’t know what to do about it and until she had figured that out, she was going to ignore it and hoped that Ben wouldn’t muster up the courage to tell her before she had.

“Are you worried? I heard him and Eddie talking about finding a different place to stay”, she said.

“When aren’t they talking about that? I don’t know if that’s necessary though.”

“I like it here.” They’ve been staying at the asylum for about a year now and it really felt like home. It would suck if they had to find a different place that was big enough for all of them, free and hidden. She even doubted there was a place like that anywhere. “But if we have to leave, I’d rather have time to pack instead of leaving in a hurry because Bill sensed something, you know?”

“Sure”, he said. She could hear the grin in his voice without opening her eyes. “I’ll have to squeeze Eddie in my suitcase, make sure we don’t forget him.”

“I think he’d make sure of that.”

“Bev, that’s not the point. Can you imagine? Eddie in a suitcase? He’s so tiny!”

When she was sure he wasn’t near her eyes with the brush anymore, she opened them to roll them at him. “He’s not that small, Richie. And you know how much he hates you pointing it out.”

He nodded, making his dark curls fly around his face. “He’s adorable when he’s mad.”

 _And you have the biggest crush on him._ Another open secret. Everyone knew it although they had never spoken about it, not among themselves and not with Richie. Eddie might have been the only one still oblivious to it, but even that Bev wasn’t too sure about.

“Yeah, he’s cute”, she said, just as Stan poked his head in through the half-opened door.

“Who is?”, he asked, a knowing smile on his lips.

Richie jumped off the bed and looped an arm around Stan’s neck, dragging him inside. “You are! Just the fucking cutest, if you weren’t taken…”

“Beep beep, Richie”, Stan sighed.

“I wasn’t ev-…”

Stan cut him off. “Come on! There’s something on the radio you should hear.”

 

* * *

 

 _“... All four suspects are approximately 18 years old and very dangerous. Please don’t engage with them. Alert authorities immediately!”_ The news anchor’s voice was replaced by Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ right after he finished with their descriptions.

“Well, shit”, Richie said quietly. He reached over and turned the radio off, plunging them all into an uncomfortable silence.

Now Bev really wished that girl had used her powers on the racist piece of shit behind the counter. Maybe then he couldn’t have given them such a detailed description or witnessed her using her powers.

She looked at Mike first, then the others, seeing the same realization on their face. They’d gone so long without anyone looking for them, all trails going cold months ago and now the quiet was over. There was uncertainty on Eddie’s face, being the only one who had never had to worry about ASHA before. The worst was Ben though, he looked about ready to cry.

She slid past Richie and Eddie, linking her arm with Ben’s. “I’m sorry”, she whispered, only for him to hear.

His ears and neck turned a faint pink as he chuckled nervously. The blush grew only stronger when he turned his head and realized how close they were. “It’s not… it’s not your fault, Bev.”

“No, I know, but…” She didn’t know how to finish and let the words trail off. She felt bad. If anyone had seen enough of ASHA for a lifetime it was Ben. They all had had their encounters with them, but Ben had endured them for years and she just wished, he’d never have to face them ever again.

“Fuck this!”, Richie exclaimed, slamming his hands on the table. “I’ll take care of this.”

“What are you talking about?”, Eddie asked.

“I’ll just pretend to be Bev and Mike somewhere far away from here.” He shrugged. “I’ve done that before.”

“Are you sure?”, Mike asked.

“How far could you have possibly gotten by now? 60-70 miles?” He was already walking towards one of the smudged windows and opened it. “I’ll just run around in some public places, behaving all sketchy and shit and just get back here in no time. No need to worry, Eddie Spaghetti, I’ll be back for evening cuddles.”

“That’s not even a thing!”, Eddie snapped, crossing his arms.

Richie climbed halfway through the window, one leg still dangling on the inside, and winked at him. “It could be our thing, sweet pea.”

Before Eddie could complain about the nickname, Richie’s silhouette rippled and shrunk. Looking at him change his appearance always gave Bev a headache if she tried to really pay attention, so she glanced at the floor for a second and only caught a glimpse of the grey pigeon flying out of the window.

“I wish he’d g-g-given us t-time to talk about this first”, Bill muttered. “I have a bad feel-l-l-ling about it.”

“He’s done it before”, Mike said, but he didn’t seem completely convinced. “Richie’ll be fine.”

She really hoped so, if something happened to him while he was out risking his neck for her, she’d kill him. He really should have given them a chance to talk about it first, there were probably other less risky options to deal with this.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Party get an unwelcome visitor

They’d found some dry sticks and started a small fire on the tracks, trains sheltering them from the cold wind on two sides. Max had been gone for hours now, three hours and 32 minutes to be exact and in Lucas opinion that was way too long. In that time she could’ve run from the Canadian to the Mexican border and back again. It really shouldn’t take her that long to find a car.

Opposite him Mike and El were huddled together under a blanket with her head resting on his shoulder, eyes closed while he watched the flames dance. Next to him Will sat cross-legged, almost drowning in a huge hoodie with the collar pulled over his nose. He was staring into space, deep in thought. Ever since the vision he hadn’t spoken much and Lucas would’ve bet his right arm, he was still thinking about that first vision that had shaken him so badly. He’d tried asking Will about it, but he’d just insisted that what he saw didn’t make much sense and it had just radiated a strong emotion of dread. If Dustin was worrying about anything, he was pretty good at hiding it. While roasting marshmallows over the fire, he was jabbering about something not bothered that nobody was paying attention to him.

“… just think about it. It’s not like the X-Men really wanted to be superheroes but they were. We’d need a better name than the X-Men obviously. Not only because of copyright issues, but I mean… we have Max and El and it wouldn’t feel right to be called anything Men, you know.”

“What are you even talking about?”, Lucas asked.

Dustin sighed. “Us being superheroes. Didn’t you listen, I just described th-…”

“The answer is still no! We went over this.”

“Maybe people wouldn’t hate us as much if we fought crime.”

“ASHA would hate us even more”, Mike said. “You know it’s just a fantasy, Dustin. We might be Supers, but we’re no heroes.”

“Not with that attitude we’re not.”

Lucas rolled his eyes. He’d much rather dress up in a costume and stop some bank robbers than sleeping outside in the cold and run and hide from authorities, but it just wasn’t realistic. Dustin knew that as well as anyone, but he liked his little fantasies and thinking about these what-ifs… What if the world didn’t hate them? What if they had a safe place to stay? What if they were free to go back to their families? He could entertain himself for hours like this. Lucas just didn’t see the point. It was a waste of time and he couldn’t see any comfort in pretending there was a chance of those things happening.

El opened her eyes and smiled at Dustin. “I like the X-Men. Storm is cool.”

“Is that where my comics went?”, Dustin asked, holding out his stick with the marshmallow accusingly.

“Sorry.” She grabbed the marshmallow before he could pull it back, bouncing it in her hands and blowing on it.

“Hey!”

“Sorry”, she repeated, pushing it into her mouth and continued to speak around it. “You always talk about them. I was curious.”

Dustin stuck another marshmallow onto his stick and started roasting it. “I don’t always talk about them.”

“More than enough”, Lucas muttered, but Dustin ignored his comment.

“Just ask next time, yeah? I thought I’d lost them somewhere.”

El ducked her head, her cheeks possibly turning a soft pink, but it was hard to tell with the creeping darkness and the glow of the fire. “Okay.”

When she nuzzled her head into the crook of Mike’s neck, Lucas could definitely tell he was blushing though. He was doing this quick glance around to see if anyone had noticed – Lucas and Dustin of course had and gave their friend a big grin – and then tried to hide his goofy smile. That boy was so gone for El, which Lucas thought was mostly hilarious and only a tiny bit adorable. Above all he was happy for his friends, especially El, that she got to have normal relationships with good people who liked her for who she was and not just wanted to use her for her powers.

Once his marshmallow was done, Dustin reached around the fire and waved it in Will’s face, startling the shorter boy out of his thoughts.

“W-what?”

Dustin chuckled. “Marshmallow. Eat it.”

He looked about to protest, but Dustin just shoved it closer to his face so Will picked it carefully off the stick. “Thanks”, he muttered, popping the warm, gooey treat into his mouth.

As he chewed, Will craned his neck to look up the dark path through the trees that led back to the road. “Max has been gone a while.”

“I was thinking the same thing”, Mike said, turning around too.

Part of Lucas was relieved that the others finally seemed to notice her unusually long absence, but it also made him worry more. He hadn’t wanted to say anything, lest he be teased about being an overprotective boyfriend, but now he was sure it wasn’t just his own paranoia.

Mike stuck one hand out from underneath the blanket towards Dustin. “Give me a boost?”

With a roll of his eyes, he pushed himself up to squeeze in between Mike and Will, but Lucas knew if he was really annoyed, he’d be more vocal about it. It usually didn’t take Mike long to find someone with Dustin’s help, but this time he held onto Dustin’s hand for almost a whole minute.

“She’s on her way. The car she found ran out of gas”, he said to Lucas, although his eyes flickered around as if he was searching for something.

“Must be killing her to be so slow”, Will said.

“If she could, she’d pick up the car and run here”, Lucas agreed. Most of the time Max had no problem going at their speed, but when she was on her own, it annoyed her to no end if she had to slow down. How she was their best driver, when she’d never use a car if she could help it, was a mystery.

_Lucas!_  

He jumped and then glared at Mike across the fire. As useful as Mike’s power could be, he absolutely hated when he used it on him. There was just something about having someone inside his head, hearing all his thoughts, that he didn’t care for even if it was one of his best friends.

_I know, I’m sorry._  

The telepathic talking wasn’t any better. It’s not like you could ignore someone if they were literally inside your head.

_There’s someone here. I can hear their thoughts. I think it’s the pigeon in the tree above Will, must be a shapeshifter._

Lucas glanced at the tree out of the corner of his eye. Mike was right, there was a pigeon sitting over their heads. Now Lucas didn’t know much about pigeons, but in the past few days that they had spent here, he hadn’t seen any pigeons around, especially not at night fall.

_Do you have your slingshot?_

_Yes._

Hopefully that was enough for Mike to get out of his head. Lucas couldn’t possibly be mad at him, when he used his power like this, not rationally at least, but he still didn’t have to like it. He tried to remain as inconspicuous as possible, as he brushed his hand over the ground, searching for a good stone to load his slingshot with. He found one eventually, pulled the slingshot out of his pocket and then quickly turned around to fire at the bird. His aim was slightly off, but that didn’t matter, when he could change the stone’s course in flight. The pigeon tried to dodge it, but wasn’t fast enough. The stone struck its wing and it tumbled down.

“What the fuck?!”, Dustin yelled.

“Since when do you shoot animals?”, El asked, sending him a disapproving look.

Lucas and Mike ignored them as they jumped to their feet and tried to find where the pigeon had landed. If they weren’t fast enough whoever it was could change their form and be gone before they had a chance to figure out why they were spying on them. It was probably ASHA, most definitely actually, but then it was even more important they got their hands on them before they could escape.

“Got it!” Mike ducked and came back up, presenting the pigeon in his hands to everyone else. The bird clearly didn’t like the way it was being squeezed and pecked at his fingers. Quickly Mike pulled his hands back, letting the pigeon flop to the ground again. “Shit!”

Lucas tried to grab it again, but at the same time the pigeon turned into a mouse and squeezed through his fingers. It was limping heavily, making soft squeaky noises that turned into a shrill squeal when it was suddenly picked up by invisible hands and dragged towards the fire. The small animals thrashed in the air, but couldn’t escape El’s hold.

When it became clear there was no chance of escape, the mouse went limp, its form suddenly unfocused as it grew and grew. When Lucas could finally look at it again without getting a headache, there was a tall woman standing in the circle they had formed around her. She was somewhere in her twenties, pale, had long straight black hair that fell into her face and there were some tattoos poking out from under the sleeves of her jean jacket. With El still pinning her down with her powers, all she could do was glare at them with dark blue eyes.

“Who are you?”, Mike demanded.

“The fuck is wrong with you?”, she hissed. “You broke my arm or something!”

Her right arm was hanging limply at her side, but Lucas wasn’t feeling remorseful at all. He could’ve hit her head, then she’d really have something to complain about.

“Why were you spying on us?”

She scoffed. “Spying! Since when are conversations about comics top secret?”

El’s eyes narrowed and the woman flew backwards, slamming into a tree. A small yelp escaped her lips, followed by a groan of pain.

“Who are you?”, Mike repeated.

“Jesus fuck, how about you guys chill? What are you going to do? Kill me?”

Her words were followed by silence as they looked at each other. They couldn’t let her go, that much was clear and as soon as El released her, she’d turn into another animal and be gone. But were they going to kill her? And who would do it?

She gulped. “Great. You’re going to fucking kill me, just great.”

“You’re ASHA!”, El said. “You want to kill us.”

“Like hell I am!”

“That’s what ASHA would say”, Dustin said.

“If I were ASHA, I’d have backup that would come and beat your asses now, wouldn’t I? ASHA doesn’t work alone.”

“You must be really dumb if you’re out here on your own”, Mike said.

She snorted. “Says the guy who looks like an albino frog.”

Dustin could barely hold back his laughter, when Mike glared at her, his lips pressed together in a tight line. For someone who thought they were going to kill her, she seemed to be weirdly unaffected by it.

“If you’re not ASHA”, Will said, “then just tell us who you are.”

Her eyes darted down to her arms, probably surprised to find herself still unable to move. “I don’t know where you’re from, boyo, but telling your whole damn life story to a couple of strangers hanging out in a train graveyard in the middle of nowhere doesn’t sound like a sane decision to me.”

Lucas tried to catch Mike’s gaze, but he was too focused on the intruder. Hopefully he was already using his power, because they clearly weren’t getting anywhere by simple interrogation. Part of him was almost convinced she was telling the truth and wasn’t with ASHA, but he wouldn’t take the chance. The risk was too big. But was he willing to kill someone on the possibility of being a threat? Was he willing to ask any of his friends to do that? Could they live with themselves if they did?

“How did you know I was there anyway?”, the woman said, tearing her gaze away from Mike for a split second to arch an eyebrow at Lucas. 

“Never seen such an ugly pigeon in my life.”

She scoffed. “Melvin would be deeply offended by that. You know I have to touch someone before I can turn into them. You just hurt the feelings of a very real pigeon.”

Was it possible this woman was more annoying than Dustin? At least Dustin knew when things were serious and it was best to shut up. She probably never heard of the concept of shutting up. To emphasize her words, her silhouette rippled and she turned into a perfect copy of Mike. Only there was a smirk on his face, Lucas had never seen before.

“Change back!”, the real Mike demanded.

“Why? Scared your girlfriend will like me better?”

“I don’t”, El said. She loosened her hold on her, only to smash her against the tree again, making her gasp in pain. “Change!”

She took a few deep breaths, but then she did as she was told and turned back into herself.

“You’re with the people from the gas station”, Mike said. “If you’re not ASHA why are you spying on us?”

The smirk fell from her face, but only for a second before she schooled her expression back into aloofness. El tensed at the mention of her earlier encounter, her glare turning more deadly, if that was even possible.

“Wasn’t spying. Just wanted to see for myself what got my friends so shook up. When I heard about it, I thought telekinesis was pretty fucking cool, but I’m starting to change my mind about that.”

Lucas looked from her to Mike. If Mike was in her head right now, he’d be able to tell if she was lying or not. Apparently, she wasn’t.

“She’s not with ASHA”, Will muttered. His voice was low, almost as if he were far away and when Lucas turned around he knew why. Will was sitting with his back to the fire, Dustin hovering by his side. He’d used his powers to find out more about her. “You were on the news. Everyone is looking for her friends and El and Max. She was trying to help her friends.”

This time she didn’t manage to hide her surprise. The grin never returned to her face either as she looked from Will to Mike. “Now that we’ve established that I’m not ASHA, how about you let me go? I’d like this getting pinned against a tree a lot more if you’d use your body to do it.” Her words were followed by a wink in El’s direction.

“Just because you’re not ASHA, doesn’t mean you’re not dangerous”, Mike snapped. His face had turned a faint red and his fists were clenched, but other than that he was able to hold back his anger. Lucas wouldn’t mind if he didn’t. Maybe it wasn’t very gentlemanly to hit a woman, but who even cared about etiquette around here and she was definitely asking for it.

She sighed. “Alright, I’m not but whatever. What are you going to do to me? Read my mind until it melts? Have your girlfriend force choke me to death?”

“El, can’t you make her shut up?”, Lucas asked. He’d had enough of the quips and the jabbering.

“What? We were ha-…” Her mouth snapped shut, the rest of her words turning into incomprehensible mumbling.

“Ah the sweet sound of silence”, Dustin said, grinning.

“That’s ironic coming from you”, Lucas said. Dustin flicked him off and they both laughed.

They drew back towards the fire then, El staying behind a few steps to keep her hold on the woman. In Lucas mind there was no way, they could kill her now that she wasn’t ASHA, that she was like them. But what could they do? Just letting her go seemed too dangerous.

“What are we going to do with her?”, Will asked in a low voice.

“I don’t know”, Mike said.

“Can’t we just leave her here? Once Max gets here, we’ll be on our way and gone”, Dustin suggested.

Lucas nodded.

“What if she follows us?”, Mike said, staring darkly at her slumped figure. “She’s a risk.”

“Do you have a better idea?”, Lucas asked. “We can’t get rid of her, we can’t let her go and we can’t take her with us either.”

Mike shook his head slowly. “I don’t… She’s just… I don’t know how to explain this. Her thoughts are all over the place, being inside her head was… She’s weird.”

“How?”, Dustin asked, obviously intrigued.

“Don’t know. She’s just very interested in us, got a lot of thoughts about our powers and stuff.”

“She was looking at you the whole time”, Will pointed out. “Do you think she knew you were in her head?”

“I don’t think so. If she did, she probably wouldn’t have had a five-minute long inner monologue about my appearance”, Mike said, trying to brush it off as a joke. “It’s weird, isn’t it?”

Dustin shrugged. “A little. But some people have weird taste in men. Sorry, El.”

Whatever Mike was about to say to that, was left unspoken as Max finally joined them. One second he could hear her rushing towards them and then she skidded to a stop directly in front of the fire, almost stumbling into the flames, propelled forward by the momentum. Will reached out to steady her, earning a thankful smile from her.

“You guys ready to go? I parked the bus up by the gate. So we sh-…” Her words died on her tongue as she noticed they had company. “Who is that?”

“A friend of the people we met at the gas station”, El said over her shoulder. “She was spying on us.”

“Was not spying!”, the woman shouted so loud it made Lucas jump. Either El had loosened her hold again or she had a really strong desire to speak if she was able to break through El’s power like that.

“And what do we do with her now?”, Max asked.

Lucas shrugged. “We haven’t figured it out yet.”

“Well, we should hurry or someone’s going to notice the bus parked out front and call the cops on us for trespassing. Who are on our asses already, by the way. We are all over the news.”

“We know”, Will said. “I saw it.”

“The more reason to hurry up and get out of here”, Mike said, stepping closer to the woman. “I think we either leave her here or have Max dump her somewhere so she can’t follow us.”

He looked at them all, waiting for their approval. Lucas wasn’t completely happy with either solution, but at least they didn’t have to kill her and depending on where Max dropped her, they’d be safe. He hoped they’d be. So he nodded along with the others.

Somewhere in the distant an owl hooted.

“Alright, then let’s get going”, Dustin said, stepping out the fire.

The owl hooted again. Somehow this was funny to their guest. She fidgeted, but froze as soon as El tightened her grip on her. It didn’t stop her from turning into an owl and respond to the call though. At first he didn’t think anything about it. She seemed like a person who’d have fun communicating with birds, but then she turned back and grinned at them.

“Time’s up”, she said.

“What do you mean?”, Mike snapped, running towards her.

She smiled. “Like you said. You must be really dumb to be on your own and I’m neither dumb nor am I on my own, cupcake.”

Mike hesitated for a moment, then grabbed her injured arm and squeezed. She cried out in pain. Her scream echoing through the woods.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fight breaks out between the two groups.

The scream cut through the hushed silence just as he jumped over the fence, making them all pause. Eddie who was still on top of the gate, jumped all the way down, landing heavily on his knees.

“Fuck!”, he cursed, but got back on his feet immediately.

Stan, who was the only one still climbing the fence, hastily scrambled down a bit further before he leaped as well.

“I swear to God if he’s not dead when we find him, I’m going to kill him myself!”, Bev said.

They started running through the dark forest in the direction of the scream.

“I’ll help!”, Eddie, who was leading the way, shouted over his shoulder.

They’d all gotten restless when Richie hadn’t been back after a couple of hours, but since they didn’t know where he had gone, there wasn’t really anything they could do. That was until Bill had felt he was in danger. They’d gotten into the cars and driven here as fast as they could, relying on Bill’s power to guide them the whole time. Mike had been nervous they wouldn’t find him. Bill wasn’t exactly great with directions and his power wasn’t very clear about them either, just a pull to whoever was in danger.

But they’d gotten here eventually, the place surprisingly not very far from the asylum and after Stan had done the birdcall thing he and Richie had come up with years ago, there had been an answer. Now they just needed to find him and get out of here.

They followed the path further into the forest, but the trees soon gave away to overgrown train tracks and old, rusty streetcars and trains, the windows blown out and covered in graffiti. If they weren’t here on a rescue mission and if the sign at the gate hadn’t clearly told everyone to keep out, Mike would’ve loved to take the time and explore the place.

“Eddie, s-s-slow down!”, Bill called, picking up his pace so he could be in the front and be able to shield all of them against possible attacks.

But Eddie didn’t listen. Mike sighed. He was closest to him right now, so he tried to stay by his side, ready to protect him if necessary. “I’ve got him.”

They ran as fast as they could without stumbling in the dark until they reached a spot, where embers were still glowing on the tracks, the remnants of a hastily put-out fire. At first Mike thought whoever was here had left, but then he saw the shadows pressed to the old trains on both sides of them. It was hard to tell with the lack of real light, but Mike was pretty sure he saw the girl with the long, red hair from earlier today. Was that really today? It already felt like much longer ago.

“Mike! Eddie!”

He spun around, only to find Richie slumped against a tree behind them. He was wearing his usual female face with the long hair falling into his face. At first glance he seemed fine, although it was weird that he was sitting there like that, but when they drew nearer, Mike saw that his whole body was rigid, almost like he was stuck in the middle of a convulsion.

“Stop! She’s…”, Richie shouted, but before he could finish his sentence, Mike was lifted off his feet. He flailed in midair for a fracture of a second and then went flying into the next streetcar. He gasped as the wind was knocked out of his lungs and landed on the cold ground. Now he could see the telekinetic girl from earlier hiding behind the tree. Mike watched as she sent Eddie flying with a flick of her wrist. He thankfully just landed in the dirt without hitting anything. He probably wouldn’t have taken it as well as Mike.

And then all hell broke loose.

The others had not been far behind them and seen them go flying. Bev didn’t take kindly to her friends being manhandled like that, charged at the shorter girl, grabbed her around her waist and flung her towards the smoldering embers. She didn’t land in them, but it got a reaction from her friends. Whatever the fast one’s plan was, it didn’t turn out her way as she slammed into Bill’s shield at full speed and toppled to the ground.

“Shit!”, one of them screamed. “Shit, shit, shit, shit!”

Mike decided to ignore all of them and ran towards Richie. When Bev had thrown El, her hold on him had disappeared, but he was still just sitting there. He grabbed his shoulder to pull him up, but quickly let go when Richie screamed in pain.

“My arm”, he said through gritted teeth. “I think it’s broken.”

“Sorry.” He was already scanning the area for Eddie, but couldn’t immediately spot him in the darkness with so many shadows running around them. It was only when everything was illuminated by bright white-blue lightning that he saw Eddie standing behind Bill. The two now being the only ones protected by his shield.

Mike turned back to Richie, slinging his good arm around his shoulders. “We’re going to run over to Bill and Eddie, okay? You stay behind me!”

“Aye aye!”

Although it wasn’t that far it took them longer than expected. The sound of metal screeching made him turn just in time to see one of the trains being lifted into the air and hurled straight towards Bill. Richie pulled him down before it could slice off their heads. The train car slammed into Bill’s shield, thankfully he was strong enough to keep it up, but he was visibly straining.

The train was followed by another lightning zooming past their heads towards someone behind them. Mike shot one glance at Stan just to confirm, that yes, the boy was pissed. He was usually very careful about using his powers, always afraid to lose control and hurt someone, but it didn’t look like he was afraid anymore.

“Come on”, Mike muttered, dragging Richie along and trying to ignore his moans of pains every time his injured arm got jostled.

They reached their friends and Bill quickly cast a new shield around all four of them. Now that they were safe, Mike took a second to assess the situation. Stan and Ben stood shoulder to shoulder with their backs pressed against one of the trains. The gun in Ben’s hand was shaking, but he still aimed at the shadows running in the darkness and pulled the trigger. Beverly was standing halfway between them and the others, catching most of the stuff El was throwing at them and hurling it back. Speaking of, the short girl was standing menacingly between the tracks, staring Bev down while she lifted the cars around her without much effort. There was a boy standing behind her with a big head of curls spilling out from underneath a cap, one of his hands rested on her shoulder.

Two more boys were huddled together in the shadows, trying not to get in the way. Another one stood a bit off to the side. He was keeping an eye on Stan and Ben and every time they aimed at his friends, the earth started to rumble. With a quick upwards motion of his hands, walls of dirt shot out of the ground to protect them. There was no sign of the redhead, but he assumed she was out there too, just too fast for him to see.

“Eds!” Richie’s voice drew his attention back.

“Where are you hurt?”

Eddie scanned his body with experienced eyes and began pulling at his denim jacket.

“Damn, at least buy me a drink first, Spaghetti.”

“Do you want me to fix it or not?” Together they managed to get Richie’s jacket off to expose his left arm, bent awkwardly, swollen and red. Definitely broken. “If you want to be a pain in the ass about it, we can just let it heal naturally.”

Richie pouted. “Don’t be like that. Pleaaaaase, kiss it better.”

Eddie rolled his eyes, but placed his hands on the break anyway. There was a soft crack when the bone snapped into place, which elicited another muffled scream from Richie, but then his face relaxed. All pain gone.

“Thanks, you’re my hero”, he said and planted a wet kiss on Eddie’s cheek.

Another one of Stan’s lightnings illuminated the night and Mike could see Eddie had turned a bright pink. He quickly wiped at his cheek. “Whatever.”

Just then a huge rock smashed against the shield, sending ripples through it. Beads of sweat had formed on Bill’s forehead, but so far that was the only sign how draining it was for him to keep up the shield when massive objects were thrown at it.

“Okay, we’ve got Richie. Can we go now?”, Mike asked.

“We d-d-don’t want them to fo-luh-luh-low us.”

“Not you too” Richie groaned. “They just had the exact same debate for twenty minutes.”

“The goal was to get Richie”, Mike reminded them. “I’m not fighting them.”

“Fight them? Nobody is hurting anyone.” Richie seemed genuinely surprised that they could even think about that. Mike just gestured at what was happening right in front of their noses. How had he not noticed any of that? “Fucking hell!”

That was when he saw the speedster for the first time as she grabbed her friends – El and the boy behind her – and pushed them out of the way of a lightning bolt that had managed to go over the protective dirt wall.

“No!”, Richie shouted, although it wasn’t sure who he was talking too. It wasn’t like anyone except those around him heard. “They’re just-“

He was cut off by the earth rumbling and shaking under their feet. Mike quickly grabbed onto Eddie and Richie to both steady himself and them. On their way here, he’d been aware there would be a fight, but he’d also thought they’d just grab Richie and be out of there and now things were spiraling out of control. His friends were in danger and he couldn’t do anything to help.

Mike was about to leave the security of Bill’s shield to try and do something useful. Maybe make sure that Ben and Stan were safe, but the shaking increased, knocking him off his feet.

“Holy shit!” Richie’s voice had an unusual high pitch. Not a good sign.

And then Mike saw it too. The ground was splitting. A huge crack formed where the boy had stomped his foot on the ground and it zoomed directly towards them. More accurately, if Mike didn’t move, he’d be saying hello to Satan – or whatever entity might live down there – very soon.

He scrambled to his feet, muttering “shit, shit, shit!” under his breath. Richie grabbed him by the back of his jacket, pulling him to his feet. Just in time as the crack went through Bill’s shield as if it wasn’t even there and split the earth right where Mike had been lying just a split second ago.

Bill lost his balance too and landed on his butt, but at least he wasn’t swallowed by the earth. The crack was a good four feet wide and dropped down to complete darkness. Maybe it was just the lack of light here in the woods, but Mike really didn’t want to find out how deep that was.

All four of them stared at it in awe, only realizing that Bill’s shield wasn’t up anymore, when the door of a train landed just inches away from Eddie.

“Fuck!”, Bill cursed, immediately raising a new one around them. “Sorry.”

“Guess we know your shields aren’t invincible, Big Bill.”

“My sh-sh-sh-shields… I c-can’t put them _in_ the ea-earth, Richie.” A deep crease formed between his brows, the muscles of his jaw tightened. He hated that he couldn’t, probably berated himself right now how he wasn’t good enough at protecting all of them. Mike knew about Bill’s struggle with his power, how he never thought he was strong enough, good enough although he had stopped at least three train cars slung their way and he just couldn’t do anything about the earth splitting underneath his shield.

Knowing Bill wouldn’t listen to him anyway, Mike just patted his shoulder instead of telling him how wrong he was.

In the sudden quiet after the earth had settled down, Ben’s voice was loud and clear, so was the barely controlled panic in it. “Eddie! Eddie!”

Mike’s heart dropped, when he saw why. Stan had collapsed into Ben’s arms, a dark stain rapidly growing on his shirt as his blood soaked through. With his eyes closed and the pasty colour of his face, he looked almost lifeless.

 

* * *

 

Max had never felt so slow in her life. She was used to being ahead of everything, used to having to slow down even when she felt she was already going at a crawl. But as she was darting from one of her friends to the other, trying to protect them against any attacks, she just wished to go faster. Faster. As soon as she had pushed Dustin and El out of the way of the damn Lightning Boy, she noticed the piece of scrap metal sailing towards Will and Mike, who were half-hidden behind one of the trains. They had seen it too, were about to start running, but knowing their agonizingly slow pace, they’d never make it.

She made her way over to them, grabbed them by the shoulders and pushed as hard as she could. Speed was great, but sometimes she wished she was just a bit stronger. She could carry El and Will no problem, but only because she had trained herself to do it. She was still struggling when she had to carry any of the other boys for a longer period of time. And wouldn’t it just be so much easier, if she could grab the scrap metal and throw it back, instead of having to push and pull at her unyielding friends?

Forcing herself to stop and let the world catch up to her, she let her eyes wander over Mike and Will to check if they were okay. They flinched at the sound of metal hitting metal. Max cast a look over her shoulder, yep, that would’ve turned Will into mashed potatoes.

“Thanks”, Mike breathed, being the first to realize what had just happened. Usually she thought it was the funniest thing to see how long it took her friends to understand why they were suddenly somewhere else or why some objects had moved, but right now she just wanted them to be able to keep up for once.

“Yeah, thanks, Max”, Will said.

Mike looked about to say something else, but Max didn’t have the time for stories now. There were still people throwing trains and lightning bolts. Lucas had been pretty good at deflecting all attacks so far, but Max saw his mistake even before he had made it. She saw the exact moment his stance changed from defense to offense, his eyes flickering from the two attacking boys to the ones hiding behind the stupid invisible barrier. Her nose still hurt, where she had run into it headfirst. Assholes.

Maybe they had seen Lucas’ attention shift too, or maybe – more likely – they just got lucky. He had barely put his foot down, parting the earth in front of him, when the gun fired.

Max shot forwards, willing her feet to move faster. Her already racing heart, picked up its pace as she saw Lightning Boy raise his arm in slow motion, sparks forming between his fingers, white-blue sparks building up for a deathly strike. She had to get there before he released it. A bullet she could redirect, but a lightning bolt would find its target. She wasn’t close enough to push Lucas out of the way now. The bullet was her only choice.

In the darkness, she almost missed the small, golden bullet. Almost. She carefully altered its cause until it made a turn and flew right back at Lightning Boy. It would’ve been easier and faster if she could just pick it out of the air, but she’d made that mistake once and never again. She needed the bullet to keep its speed, keep the force that drove it forward. If she just picked it up and put it where she wanted it, it would lose its drive and just fall to the ground.

The bullet alone wasn’t enough though. Max ran its path, just to be perfectly sure it would hit its new target, then grabbed the gun from the fat boy’s hand. He’d gripped it so tightly, she had to twist his wrist to jerk it free. Now she had two less people to worry about.

As she made her way to Lucas’ side, she gradually slowed her pace, trying to find just the right speed to match her surroundings. The short scream of pain from behind her made her wince. That was her doing. There was a boy here who could heal him, the bullet probably wasn’t going to hit any vital organs, at least she didn’t think so, but if he died anyway that was on her. Redirecting bullets wasn’t something she did a lot, but she had done it before, maybe even killed someone doing it, but it had never been another Super. This boy – although he was throwing lightning bolts at them with the intent to harm them – was like her. They shouldn’t be killing each other.

 

* * *

 

Mike’s fingers curled tightly around Eddie’s arm as he dragged him along to Ben and Stan, making sure his body was in front of Eddie at all times. The redhead had gotten her hands on Ben’s gun and just because she hadn’t shot at them yet, didn’t mean she wasn’t about to.

Bill and Richie were behind them, but as soon as Bill had seen Stan’s state, his shield had dropped. Either he was unable to conjure up a new one, or he hadn’t even thought about it. Either way Mike was their only protection right now and as much as it hurt him to leave Richie and Bill open for any attacks, he knew he couldn’t shield them all and they needed Eddie.

Ben had already pushed Stan’s shirt up to his shoulders when Eddie dropped to his knees next to them. The small, round hole in his stomach didn’t look menacing at all. How could such a tiny wound bleed so much? The sight alone was enough to make Mike’s stomach turn. His hands were already cold and sweaty, but then there was the sweet smell and he had to quickly turn around to not throw up all over their friends. There were images – memories – trying to push to the front of his mind, memories of blood and gunshots, of death and loss. Mike pushed the memories back into the box, now was not the time.

“Stan!” Bill’s voice was so distraught. There was a rawness to it that Mike had never heard before and he was glad to have his back to them, sure he wouldn’t be able to see his friends like this.

“He’s fine”, Eddie snapped. Whenever things were overwhelming anger was just Eddie’s outlet. He’d apologize after, but in the moment he was all sharp edges and careless words.

“Eddie”, Ben whispered, voice cracking.

“What? He is! See that? That’s the fucking bullet, okay? I’ve got him! He’s fine!”

Mike took a deep breath. Of course Stan would be okay. So far they hadn’t encountered an injury or sickness that Eddie couldn’t heal and it wasn’t for Richie and Bev’s lack of trying. But somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that someday their luck would run out, that someday Eddie wouldn’t be able to fix them up.

Too focused on the conversation happening behind him, Mike hadn’t paid attention to the girl with the gun. He was made aware of his mistake when he heard the gun going off and the felt something small hitting him in the shoulder, hard. Ow! He’d been shot at before, but he still hadn’t gotten used to the feeling. Pushing a hand down the collar of his shirt, he pulled the bullet out. His fingers brushed over the hole in his jacket. Damn, Richie had just gotten that one for him.

The gun went off another three times. One bullet hitting Mike in the leg, the other two blowing holes into the rusty train behind him. Thank God, her aim wasn’t very good.

“Bill, now that doctor Spaghetti fixed your darling princess up nicely, how about a shield? We all know Mike would take a bullet for us and he’s broad and shit, but I doubt we can all hide behind him!”

Mike snorted a laugh.

“Don’t call me that, asshole!” Stan’s voice was firm and strong as ever. Eddie must’ve done a good job.

But even as Mike was pushed back a step by Bill’s new shield and he saw the next bullet bouncing of it, he didn’t turn around. The wound might be gone, but the blood would still be there.

“Alright, Sparkles!”

Despite the shield, it didn’t stop the redhead from shooting at them again and again until she ran out of bullets. Mike was more worried about the boy at her side. If he decided to split the earth another time, neither his body nor Bill’s shield could protect them against that.

“You shoot at my friends one more time and I’ll rip her fucking head off!” Bev’s words were followed by complete silence.

While they had been busy with Stan, she had managed to get close enough to El to grab her. One of Bev’s arms was around her neck, the other one had a firm grip on her head. If the girl had looked pissed before, she looked about ready to combust right now. He had known Bev for a long time now, would say he knew her well, but right now Mike couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. Maybe she was willing to do that for her friends. The thought made his skin prickle. Were they really capable of this?

One of the boys from the shadows leapt forward. It was the first time Mike got a good look at him and he had to immediately turn around to see if Richie was still behind him. He was. But the boy looked almost exactly like Richie’s real face. Minus the glasses and the odd fashion sense.

Eddie got to his feet. “What the hell?”

Mike quickly took a step away from him, when he noticed his bloody hands. Thankfully, Eddie was staring at the Richie look-a-like too much to notice.

“That guy looks a lot like Richie”, Ben said. Someone behind him snorted, probably Stan.

“Do you think?”, Richie asked, already walking towards the spectacle in front of them. The rest of them followed.

“Let go of her right now!”

“Kind of sounds like Richie too”, Mike said.

Richie gave him one of his best glares. They usually worked better when he wore this face. Real Richie was about as intimidating as a fava bean “I do not sound like that! All whiny and shit!”

“You just sounded exactly like that”, Stan said.

“G-g-guys! Bev is ab-b-bout to behead a g-g-girl”, Bill pointed out. “S-save that for luh-luh-later.”

With the fighting at a stop for now, both groups gathered around Bev and El. If Bev was distracted by a boy that looked like Richie without glasses shouting at her, she didn’t show it.  She looked deadly serious about her threat and the other group seemed to be torn between ripping her to shreds or giving her space.

To no one’s surprise, Richie was the first one to break the uncomfortable silence. “Bev, that’s metal as fuck, but how about we leave everyone’s head attached to their body?”

“If she’s the voice of reason in their group, we’re all fucked.” The comment made Mike smile. Seemed like they had gotten to know Richie well enough already. It had been the boy with the curls, loudly whispering to his friend that had split the earth.

Bev smirked at Richie, but her grip didn’t loosen. “I’ll leave the pretty head where it is, when they agree to let us leave without any more fighting.”

“You’re the ones who started shit!”

“You kidnapped Richie! You threw Mike through the air!”, Eddie shouted, always ready to get into an argument.

“You spied on us!” The Richie look-a-like only tore his eyes from Bev for a second to sneer at Eddie. It was weird. Richie would never talk or look at any of them like that.

“Are we really fighting about who started it?”, the redhead asked, rolling her eyes. “Are we in kindergarten?”

Richie thrust a thumb towards the shortest boy in their group. Even Eddie, who was rather short himself had a few inches on him and with those big eyes of his, he looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights. “He looks like he could be”, Richie said.

This did nothing to improve the already tense situation. The boy himself didn’t react to the comment, but his friends were ready to tackle Richie. When Mike saw the look the earth-splitting boy shot him, he immediately stepped closer to Richie. He still wasn’t sure how he could protect him against that power, but he’d sure try to anyway.

Richie’s look-a-like squared his shoulder, still staring Bev down, who didn’t blink once. Suddenly she started screaming, the hand holding El’s head, moving up to grab her own head, while the other arm tightened around the shorter girl’s neck. Her hands came up to fight against Bev’s grip.

“Hey!” Ben pushed past Stan and Bill and shoved the boy hard so he landed on his knees. “What the hell are you doing to her?”

El’s eyes were now huge, her fingers clawed at the arm around her throat and her whole body twisted as she tried to free herself, but there was no way out of Bev’s hold.

Several people started shouting at once. Mike heard his own and El’s name shouted from the other group. Ben was screaming something that he didn’t quite catch, but Richie’s voice was heard above all others.

“STOP!” He practically leaped over the boy on the ground to help El and try to pull Bev’s arm off her. When he had no luck either, he slapped her. That seemed to work as Bev’s screaming stopped and her arms dropped. As soon as they did, El ducked out of her reach, panting heavily.

Bev raised a hand to her flushed cheek, looking stunned from Richie to his look-a-like and back. There was something in her eyes as she did, something Mike couldn’t immediately place and then it was gone just as quickly.

“Stop!”, Richie repeated, taking his time to look at all of them. “We don’t want to hurt any of you and I think you don’t really want to either.”

For a moment nobody said anything, Mike almost anticipated them to disagree with Richie and the fighting to start up again now that El wasn’t in danger of losing her head anymore.

But then Stan’s voice piped up. “If we’re not killing each other, can we talk about the fact that guy looks exactly like you?” He made a vague gesture towards the boy on the ground.

“Yeah, what the fuck, Richie”, Eddie agreed.

Ben didn’t seem too interested, he still looked ready to pummel the guy for doing whatever he did to Beverly. The other group just looked confused.

“Are you all blind?”, the curly guy asked. “She looks nothing like Mike.”

Richie threw an arm around him, making the boy blush furiously. “I like this one. I look nothing like that pasty frog-boy.”

Bev sighed. “Richie.”

“Ugh… we have no time for this”, the other Mike muttered. He got to his feet, brushed the dirt off his clothes and pulled El to his side, probably afraid Bev would grab her again. “You do whatever you want, but we’re heading out.”

He was probably right about that. With all the noise and Stan’s lightning bolts someone must’ve alerted the authorities already. They should get out of here before it got ugly.

“Okay, wait!” Richie’s form rippled. In the faint light, he almost looked like a shadow until he changed into his own face, huge glasses, questionable clothes and wild curls inclusive. Now that Mike could see them next to each other, the resemblance was even more uncanny. “We might look a little alike.”

One of the others snorted. “Yeah, because you just changed into him. We’ve already seen the trick.”

“No, that’s Richie’s face”, Mike said. He could see how they’d be confused, but Richie’s shapeshifting was impeccable, they wouldn’t be able to tell the two apart at all if he had used it.

Bev tugged herself into Richie’s side, draping his arm around her shoulders and linking her fingers with his. “And why do you like each other?”

“Is this like the Parent Trap?” The boy, who had looked a little too happy when Richie had thrown his arm around him before, had quickly stepped away from him when he’d turned into himself. Now he was looking between Richie and the other Mike with a completely new interest.

“The what?”, the redhead asked.

“The Parent Trap”, he repeated as if that explained everything. “You know that movie where the girls figure out they’re twins and try to get their parents back together.” He was met by blank stares all around. “Yeah okay, maybe it’s a bit old.”

This made Eddie chuckle. “Bit old? That movie is from the 60s.” Well, maybe there was one other person here who knew what he was talking about. But why on earth would any of them know about a movie from 30 years ago, they barely knew any recent movies.

He shrugged. “Mom used to make me watch it.”

“Can we save the movie recommendations for later?”, the redhead asked. “Mike is right. We have to get out of here.”

At first nobody moved, until she grabbed the boy next to her with a groan and started to lead him up the path to the street. Slowly her other friends followed her, everyone but the other Mike, who was still staring at Richie. For someone who loved to talk, Richie was really quiet, as he looked back at him.

Twins? Was that it then? Richie had never mentioned any siblings, definitely never said anything about a twin brother. But either he wanted to figure this out or already knew something, because he’d never just show his real face around a bunch of strangers like that.

“Brothers?”, the other Mike finally asked. He didn’t seem to have noticed that all his friends were now lingering by the path waiting for him. “Are you sure?”

“You’re in my head, aren’t you?” Richie rubbed at his temples. Was that his power? Was that how he had hurt Bev? Maybe Richie could feel him too, although it didn’t seem to hurt him. “Well, I guess we must be. Otherwise my parents had a lot of fights about keeping the bad twin for no reason.” The words slipped out of his mouth casually, followed by a lazy grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn that's a lot of characters. I'll probably split them up into smaller groups for the next few chapters so we can get to know them a bit better.   
> I know I said all powers would be revealed in this chapter, but I couldn't really fit Ben in. I hope everyone else makes sense though


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike learns the truth about his birth parents, Ben's power is revealed and Bill feels like he's never good enough

“You want me to do what now?” Max turned in her seat to stare at him, giving him exactly the reaction he’d expected. You didn’t fight another group of Supers to the point where someone almost dies and then just follow them to their “place”, wherever that might be. Only, Mike wanted to do exactly that.

“Have you gone completely braindead?”, Lucas asked. “That girl wanted to rip El’s head off and she didn’t look like she was joking.”

Mike turned around to face the rest of his friends in the back. Max had stolen a minibus, probably thinking there’d be enough space for all of them to sleep somewhat comfortably. Dustin just looked confused, El looked… hurt? – it was always a bit hard to tell with her – only Will seemed to be supporting him, but Mike had known that. Will always supported him even if his decisions didn’t make much sense to anyone else.

“I know, but-…”

“It’s because of that woman”, Lucas said. “Or guy or whatever. He looked like you. So what? He’s a shapeshifter.”

“That wasn’t my face, Lucas.”

More importantly he had been in Richie’s head and listened to his inner voice. He hadn’t fully processed the news of having a brother, a twin brother at that, but he knew Richie wasn’t lying. There was a lot he didn’t understand and he hoped Richie could help him figure it out, but for that he needed to convince his friends to go with them first.

“It could be a trap”, El said softly.

Mike shook his head. During the fight, he’d had enough time to listen to everybody’s thoughts. Even if it were just brief glimpses, he knew none of them had wanted to actually fight them. They would – and had – to keep each other safe, but all in all they didn’t enjoy it. So no, it wasn’t a trap. If he thought there could even be the slightest chance of danger, he wouldn’t ask them to come with him.

Will smiled at him. “Of course, we have to go, guys.”

 

_Things were bad when Nancy hugged him. Usually they pretended not to like each other much and both were fine with that, but today Nancy was hugging him._

_“Damn it, Mike”, she said, still holding him tight. “Why did you have to show off your magic trick so much?”_

_When he had first found out about his powers, he’d excitedly told his family about it and they had nicknamed it his magic trick. His parents had warned him about keeping it a secret, briefly mentioning ASHA and other Supers, but he had been 7 years old and there were other people’s thoughts in his head at all times. Sometimes he couldn’t even distinguish between thoughts and stuff that was said aloud. Most people had thought him weird, only Will had believed in his magic trick. He even had his own magic trick, that he had kept hidden from Mike. Joyce Byers was a lot stricter about keeping the powers of her sons a secret than Mike’s parents._

_Fast forward 8 years and the magic trick came to bite him in the butt, because now there were people in Hawkins looking for him and that was not a good sign._

_“I’m going to miss you”, he mumbled as Nancy pulled away._

_“You’ll be back soon, dummy”, she said. “Sooner than I’d like.”_

_They smiled at each other, Mike really hoped that was true._

_When his mom kissed his cheeks, her tears left wet spots on his face. “This is for your own good, Michael, you know that, right? Joyce said…”_

_“I know, Mom”, he quickly reassured her._

_She pushed the ticket and a handful of dollar bills into his hands. He’d never held so much money before and now they were just giving it to him. His dad was always adamant about him earning his allowance by helping around the house or babysitting Holly and now they just handed him hundreds of dollars._

_“Remember, you take the next train to Lafayette and from there you leave the state. Don’t go to Kansas or Wisconsin, they’ll know you have family there. If anybody asks, your parents are divorced and you’re visiting your dad, alright?”_

_Mike nodded. Knowing he’d start to cry if he opened his mouth. They’d gone over this ten times in the last hour, but no one had told him where he actually should go, where he was supposed to sleep at night or how he would know when to come back._

_She ran a hand through his hair, then fixed his curls neatly behind his ear and straightened the collar of his sweater. “We love you so much. Please stay safe!”_

_Again, he only nodded, later regretting that he hadn’t said it back. His dad put an arm around his shoulders as he led him outside to the car, carrying his backpack in the other hand. “Let us know you’re okay when you can”, he said, tapping his forehead with a wink. “Don’t make your mom worry too much.”_

_“I…” He stopped, because even though it was already late, there was a car parked out front. For a brief moment, he thought ASHA had already found him, but then he recognized it as Jonathan’s. “Will?”_

_The brothers got out of the car and walked over to them. Will was clutching a bag to his chest, but smiled at him nonetheless. Jonathan shoved his hands into his pockets, his lips a thin line and his eyes flickering from Will to Mike._

_“I can’t let you go alone”, Will said._

_“But they’re not looking for you.”_

_“Not yet.”_

_He should’ve protested more, Mike knew. Will would be safe here with his mom and his brother, nobody suspected them of being Supers, but he couldn’t do it. The thought of having Will by his side and just not being completely alone made him feel less hopeless._

_Will turned around to hug his brother. Jonathan’s arms came around him and held him in place for a long time, so long, Mike thought he was going to drag Will back to the car._

_But then he took a deep breath and let go of him. “You better go now before Mom gets home from work. She’s going to kill me.”_

_Will nodded. “Tell her, I’m sorry.”_

 

Max sighed as she started the engine. “Looks like the Psychos have spoken.”

“They better have a house or something”, Dustin said. “Four walls and a roof, could be nice.” He started giggling then. “Man, my standards are low these days.”

Mike remained standing for a few more moments until he was sure Max was following the beat-up van Richie had climbed into, then he found himself a seat. He didn’t have the energy to tell Max to fuck off for using that stupid name right now.

He turned to Will, who sat behind him. “Thank you.”

Will shrugged. “He’s your brother.” There was a weird quality to his words and a somewhat pained look on his face. He was probably thinking about Jonathan and how he hadn’t seen his own brother in the past four years.

Deciding not to prod him, Mike sunk into his seat. He’d ask him later, if he still acted weird, but Will wouldn’t open up with the whole group around anyway.

El, next to him, had pulled her knees to her chest, resting her head on them and watched him with calm, brown eyes. He still remembered how unnerving her staring had been at first, now it still made him nervous but for completely different reasons. Looking back at her, he could feel the heat creep up his neck. With El he could always tell, when she was trying to figure something out in her head, sometimes it was hard not to use his power so he could try to help her, but he knew how much she hated it. For some reason she could always tell he was there.

His hand curled loosely around her ankle. “Are you okay?”

The corners of her mouth lifted into a faint smile. “Yes.”

“Your neck doesn’t hurt?”

She brushed a hand over the slightly bruised skin, but shook her head, making the curls fall into her face. His heart skipped a beat, when she peaked up at him from underneath. “What did you do? To the girl?”

“Nothing. I just screamed in her head.” He doubted that would work a second time, but hopefully she wouldn’t threaten to rip anyone’s head off again.

“Thank you.” Her hand crept down to his, brushing her fingers lightly against his.

Ignoring the way his whole face burned, Mike let go of her ankle and linked his fingers with hers instead. “Well, you save my ass all the time. And if it hadn’t been for Richie, I could’ve gotten you killed.”

She squeezed his hand. “You tried. Thank you.”

* * *

 

Looking up at the building towering over them, Lucas took a step backwards. Maybe it was just the darkness or maybe that really looked like it was going to crumble around them as soon as they stepped inside. All the upper windows were broken and in places there were even holes in the walls, part of the roof had collapsed.

“Good thing your standards are so low”, he told Dustin.

His friend looked back at him with a wide grin. “Are you kidding? This place is awesome!”

“How is it awesome?”

“There’s probably ghosts here!”

Oh right, he’d almost forgotten about the sign. The road leading up to the asylum lead through a small group of trees, some might even call it a tiny forest, the pavement was cracked and littered with potholes but still kind of there. And at the edge of the forest, almost swallowed by the undergrowth was an old sign, telling them they had arrived at Pine Hill Asylum. Why would any sane group of people want to live in an abandoned asylum? They were all going to die, weren’t they?

There had been brief introductions, but Lucas had barely listened and could only remember that Mike’s brother or whatever he was, was called Richie and the girl was Beverly. They had ushered Mike inside and that idiot had followed without a second thought. At least El was with him if things turned bad.

The guy that had almost bled out and the redheaded boy had disappeared behind the big, heavy doors right afterwards and now it was just their group and the three remaining boys.

The other Mike laughed, it wasn’t mean-spirited though. “There’s no ghosts here”, he said, slapping the back of his fat friend. He didn’t seem to be so sure about that. What was his name again? Bob? Probably Bob.

“And you live here?”, Will asked, eyeing the building skeptically.

“It’s not so bad. We only really live on the ground floor, Ben says the upper floors aren’t safe.”

Ah, Ben. Ben, Bob, not much of a difference. Lucas gave him another once-over, wondering what made him the expert on what was safe and what wasn’t.  

“Are we just going to stand around here all night?”, the short one asked. Did that guy ever stop scowling? Lucas didn’t know what he was so angry about, they had started the fight, so it was their own fault his friends had gotten hurt and both were fine now anyway.

He stomped towards the door, his friends following a little slower. Dustin, Will and Max didn’t hesitate to follow them, but Lucas still thought it was pretty convenient for them to live in the middle of fucking nowhere and they had already split up their group.

When she noticed he wasn’t coming, Max turned around and arched an eyebrow at him. “What do you want to do? Sit out here by yourself all night?”

Preferably he’d herd them all back onto the bus and they’d drive somewhere far away from here so ASHA wouldn’t find them and they could all go back to how things were supposed to be. It looked like he was the only one who wanted that though. He could maybe get El on his side, but they’d still be outvoted 2 to 4. Stupid democracy.

“I’m coming.”

The inside was exactly how he pictured it. The hall was dirty and dark, there was some old hospital stuff blocking the stairs. People didn’t live like this. They were all going to die. Mike and El were probably already dead.

All three of them started laughing at the looks on their faces. Not very reassuring either.

“We keep it like this on purpose”, Mike explained.

Ben nodded. “Sometimes people wander in here. Looking for ghosts or just wanting to explore the place. Usually they don’t get further than the hall.”

“Why not?”, Max asked.

“Richie and Bev like to give them a show. Bill just puts up shields so they can’t enter the other rooms. Both ways work pretty well”, the short one said.

He was leading the way around the staircase and towards another door at the end of the hall.

“How long have you lived here?”, Dustin asked.

Mike shrugged. “A while.”

“A year and four months”, Ben said at the same time.

His cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink than they naturally were and Lucas caught the smile Mike gave him. Somebody was obviously counting, he didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing.

“And ASHA never bothered you?”, he asked. ASHA was always on their asses, but maybe it was just personal since they felt they owned El and him. If they stayed in one spot for too long, they were bound to run into some ASHA agents. Somehow, they always found them, maybe they weren’t as good at keeping a low profile as they thought they were.

At the mention of ASHA, Ben tensed up. “I guess we’re lucky that way.”

Mike scoffed. “Yeah, lucky.”

As soon as they stepped through the door, they were engulfed by complete darkness. This was it then. The trap. He was relieved to feel the earth underneath his feet responding to him as soon as he reached out. Sometimes it took a little while to get a good connection, when he was separated by layers of linoleum or wooden floor, even more so when he was on higher floors. The foundation was probably just concrete though and there was sand and gravel in concrete.

He fumbled around until he found Max’s hand, not wanting to lose her when another fight was about to break loose, but before he could do anything else, a faint light illuminated their faces.

Ben smiled over the lit candle and handed it to Mike, then went around the room lighting more and more, revealing them to be in a large kitchen.

The hand was tugged away from him and to his surprise, Lucas found himself looking at Will and not Max, who was standing in front of him now.

Will smirked. “It’s okay to be scared of the dark, Lucas.”

“Funny”, he muttered and pushed his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

In the glow of a dozen candles, he had to admit the room almost looked homely. There was a long, sturdy table in the middle of the room, that looked like it could’ve been carved from the trunk of a large tree. The chairs around it varied in styles, some might have belonged in the asylum before, others were of a similar style as the table. There was a Parchisi board, abandoned in the middle of the game, mugs filled with cold tea or coffee. On the wall by the stove was an assortment of jars and containers filled with spices and dry foods. When was the last time he’d been in a kitchen that wasn’t them stealing from a restaurant or a fast food chain?

“Wow”, Max said. She trailed her hand along the table as she wandered around the room, taking it all in.

“It looks nice”, Will said. “Not at all like…”

“Like you’d expect?”, the short boy asked. He walked over and started to put away the Parchisi board. “It would probably look like shit if it wasn’t for Ben.”

“It’s not all me, Eddie. Bev did a lot of stuff too. And Mike.”

“We still couldn’t do it without you”, Mike said. If possible, Ben’s face turned an even darker shade of red at his friends’ praise.

Dustin picked a chair and made himself at home. “So what’s your power? Eddie’s is obviously healing and Mike is invincible. What’s yours?”

“Ben has the best power!”, Mike said, pushing said boy into a chair opposite of Dustin. Soon they all sat down, them on one side and Lucas and his friends on the other. 

“It is super cool”, Eddie agreed. Somewhere on their short walk through the hall and into the kitchen, he’d lost the scowl and only shot Max a glare every other moment. She had gotten his friend shot, so maybe that was warranted. Didn’t mean Lucas had to like it.

Mike nudged Ben’s shoulder. “Show them!”

“Fine.” He reached over the table to Max. “Do you still have the gun?” She pulled it out of her waistband, but hesitated to give it back to him, letting it hover over his outstretched hand. “I won’t shoot at you, I promise. It’s not loaded anyway.”

She gave him a curd nod, her face visibly relaxing once she’d dropped the gun into his hand.

Ben turned the gun over in his hand, brushing over it with his free hand as if he was checking it for damage. Somewhere in between the turning and brushing the gun lost its form, now a shapeless, glowing blob of something. He closed his hands completely around it, pulled them apart in one slick motion and was holding just another candle. The whole thing had maybe taken him two seconds.

Dustin’s mouth hung open as he watched Ben hold the candle to the flame of another, then he grabbed one of the tokens from the Parchisi board, Eddie was still fumbling with, and turned it into a small candleholder to place it in. “Woah, awesome!”

Will nodded. “Can you do that with everything?”

“Nothing that’s alive. The objects have to be roughly the same size. I have to know the thing I want to turn it into. I mean I’ll have to have touched it and know how it works if I want it to function correctly. And I can make food, but it tastes really gross.”

“Shit, that’s so cool!”, Dustin said. He was probably already thinking of a million things he’d create if he had Ben’s power.

Lucas had to admit he was impressed too. Not just with his power, but that he seemed to know his capabilities so well. When he’d met Mike and Will they had had no idea what they could actually do. _“I can hear other people’s thoughts.” – “Sometimes I see things.”_

Well, okay, maybe they had known more than that, but it had been nowhere near as detailed as what he and El had learned about their powers from the testing at the ASHA facility.

“Most of the stuff you see here is Ben’s work”, Mike said, making a wide gesture.

“And it stays like that indefinitely?”, Lucas asked. He ran his fingers over the tabletop, feeling the small bumps and ridges of the wooden texture. “That is amazing.”

“I think so”, Ben said. He was unable to hide the big, goofy smile now. “So far nothing has turned back on their own.”

That was a really useful power, he had. Lucas liked being able to control the earth, but if he was being completely honest, how useful was that when you weren’t fighting someone?

“Speaking of, we should get you guys some mattresses and stuff”, Mike said. Sleeping here? It really shouldn’t surprise Lucas this much – there was no way their Mike was just going to leave after chatting a bit with his long-lost twin or whatever Richie was – but he hadn’t considered them staying here this long. He still thought they should travel south like they had planned.

But at the prospect of actual beds his friends’ faces lit up and he wasn’t about to say no to that either.

Ben nodded. “Absolutely. It’s probably easiest if you all sleep in the kitchen tonight.”

He looked as if that was a big thing to ask of them as if they hadn’t slept in cars, old trains and under the stars for the past months. Sleeping in this kitchen on actual mattresses was as close to paradise as he’d ever get.

“The kitchen is fine”, Lucas said, smiling for the first time since their groups had run into each other.

“The kitchen it perfect!”, Max said. She ducked her head a little, when she turned to Mike. “And I’m sorry I shot at you.”

Mike nodded. “Luckily I’m bulletproof. It’s all good.”

Eddie made a noise in the back of his throat that probably meant, all was not good, but he didn’t say anything. Good, because Lucas really didn’t want to argue with him right now. He didn’t want to lose a good sleeping spot like this.

“So you’re completely invincible?”, Will asked and Lucas couldn’t tell if it was genuine interest or just him trying to switch the subject.

“Nothing penetrates my skin.” Mike shrugged as if that was a completely normal thing. “Knives, bullets, fire, acid… so far nothing’s done any damage. But I do get sick sometimes, so not invincible.”

Dustin grinned. “That’s still awesome!”

Lucas wouldn’t disagree with him, but to Dustin every power was cool. He’d probably even be envious of someone who could talk to cheese as long as he could do it without the help of someone else.

“What about you?”, Eddie asked, his dark eyes sizing up Will, then he looked at Dustin. “Or you?”

Will stared back at him with an odd coldness that was very unusual for him, but then he shrugged and lowered his gaze. “I have visions.”

“Like the future?”, Ben asked.

“I can see the past and present too. They don’t always make much sense… or come true.”

“And I just amplify other people’s powers. It’s kind of lame.”

Max shoved him playfully. “Shut up! It’s not lame.”

“You know I can’t really use my power without you”, Will said, smiling at Dustin. “I’d be stuck with all the random visions.”

“Yeah”, Lucas agreed. “Remember when you helped me make that Bulette sculpture last week?”

Dustin’s skeptical look split into a grin then. As much training as he had gotten at ASHA, Lucas wasn’t very good at using his powers for anything else but fighting. Without Dustin’s help, he would’ve never been able to do that sculpture since he hadn’t ever created something that required so much finesse.

“That looked sick!”, Dustin agreed.

Lucas noticed Ben, Mike and Eddie exchanging confused looks, but he didn’t feel like explaining to them what a Bulette was.

“It’s their nerd thing”, Max said, rolling her eyes.

Dustin shoved her back for that, making her giggle. For someone who was too cool for said nerd thing, she’d recognized the sculpture immediately as a D&D monster. Not to mention the multiple times, she’d joined their campaigns.

* * *

 

The feeling in his gut just wouldn’t go away. It wasn’t his power, it was not the awful dread of something bad happening, the pull right behind his navel either telling him to run or drag him towards a loved one in danger. It wasn’t that, but the coldness that had spread through his body wasn’t much better either. If it weren’t for Eddie, Stan would’ve died today. And nobody seemed to care about that, not even Stan himself.

He’d just walked into their room, pulled the stained shirt over his head and thrown it into a corner, saying something about it being ruined. After closing the door behind him, Bill leaned against it, not being able to look away from the dried blood on Stan’s skin, the stained waistband of his khakis. Almost four years ago, when they had left their hometown behind in a rushed escape, Bill had promised him to take care of him, that no one would hurt him and tonight Stan had almost died. He had failed him.

Stan stopped undressing, when he felt Bill staring.  Their room was just as small as all the others, but with the two mattresses in the middle of the floor, there wasn’t much space in general. Stan’s stuff on the right was neatly organized into a small dresser Ben had made for him, Bill’s things took up even less space, everything stuffed into his duffel bag. Ben had offered to get him a dresser too and Stan had offered to unpack for him, but Bill had declined. As much as he liked the asylum, he refused to accept this as their destination. He wanted more, not for himself but for his friends. Squatting in an abandoned building was not what they deserved, and why unpack if this wasn’t home?

It only took Stan two steps to walk over to him, standing in front of him and searching his face, but Bill couldn’t stand to meet his eyes. He already knew what he’d see in them and he didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve Stan at all.

He let his fingers brush over the soft skin of Stan’s belly. There was nothing there, not even a scar, as if nothing had even happened.

“Hey”, Stan whispered. His hands slid up Bill’s neck, grabbed his face firmly and forced him to look at him. “I know what you’re doing. Stop.”

Bill closed his eyes, unable to look at Stan. How could he just not care? How could he still look at him like that? “I p-p-p-p-pro-promised…”

“Promised what?”

“To prot-t-t-tect you. I p-p-promised to keep you suh-suh-safe.”

Stan pulled his face down, pressing a short kiss to his lips. “Mhm”, he hummed. “And you did a good job. You protected all of us.”

“Stan, you g-g-got shot!”

“That was not your fault.”

Bill sighed. Of course it was, how could it not? He opened his eyes, trying to make Stan be serious about this, but was surprised when he saw complete sincerity on his face.

“It wasn’t”, Stan continued. “I stepped out of your shield so I could use my power, Bill. There are seven of us now, you can’t put a shield around all of us at all time, you know that.” He leaned up to press another kiss to Bill’s lips. “And by protecting Eddie, you protected me. So you did a good job.”

His hands found Stan’s, gently pulling them away from his face so he could hold them and he leaned down to press his forehead against Stan’s. He didn’t do a good job, they were lucky no one had died tonight. If it weren’t for Eddie, he wouldn’t be able to hold Stan like this now. Thank God, for Eddie.

“I love you”, Stan whispered.

“I luh-luh-love you more.”

Stan snorted as he pulled away. “We’re not doing that. You’re such a dork!” He stepped out of his pants and threw them towards the ruined shirt. “I’ll be right back. I just need to clean… wash all of this off.”

Bill nodded and watched him leave their room in just his boxers, wondering if he had forgotten about the strangers or if he just didn’t care. While he waited for Stan to return, he slipped out of his trainers and jeans and huddled under the blankets.

 

_They sat on the front porch in the cool afternoon air, knees and shoulders pressed together and talked in hushed voices. Mom and Dad had forbidden them to so much as think about powers outside of the house, but no one was around to hear them anyway. What could happen?_

_“Dad said he got his powers when he was just six years old”, Georgie said excitedly. He had turned six earlier that year and was now waiting impatiently for his powers to manifest._

_“Mom got hers when she was 13”, Bill said. “You might have to wait a while.”_

_He only said it, because he hadn’t gotten his yet and the idea of his little brother figuring out his power before him just didn’t sit right with him. He was the oldest, he was supposed to do it first._

_Georgie pouted, but only for a short moment. “What do you think it’ll be? I want to go through walls like Dad.”_

_Although he knew that having obvious and uncontrollable powers was a bad thing, because the bad men could easily find them, Bill still wished to be able to fly. Mom and Dad would never allow him to use it, he knew, but he still wanted it._

_“I want to fly.”_

_Georgie’s eyes lit up as he excitedly nodded his head. “Me too! We could fly together!”_

_Bill shushed him, he didn’t want to get in trouble with their parents. “You only want it because I want it.”_

_What was it about little brothers that made them imitate their older sibling so much? Bill loved Georgie, but sometimes he could be really annoying. Like last week when had tried to ride Bill’s bike and of course fallen because it was too big for him and scraped his knees. Somehow Mom had thought it had been Bill’s fault. Or that other time when Georgie had stolen his favourite shirt, so he could look like him._

_“No, I want it because it’s cool!”_

_Bill rolled his eyes. If he fought with Georgie now, he’d only end up screaming again and then somebody would definitely hear them talking about powers. Their parents hadn’t explained it to Georgie yet, because he was too small, but Bill knew what would happen to them if the bad men came looking for them. They would have to leave everything behind and hide, maybe even go to a different country and if somebody found them, they’d kill them. Dead. Bill had never known anyone who died, but he’d seen it on TV. Dead meant gone forever, even Mom and Dad with their powers couldn’t do anything about that._

_Georgie grabbed the ball from behind them and jumped down the stairs. “Let’s play!”_

_Bill laughed at his enthusiasm and followed him, how was he still so excited to play when Bill almost always won? And the few times he didn’t win it was because he let him win. Georgie was a smart kid, surely he knew that._

_“Alright!”, he said, plucking the ball easily out of Georgie’s arms and running to the other end of the front yard. He kicked his foot against the fence behind him. “Think you can hit the fence and get past me this time?”_

_Georgie pumped out his chest. “Of course!”_

_Grinning, Bill threw the ball back to him, watched him grab it with his small hands and place it in front of his feet. Georgie had loved soccer ever since they’d watched a few games on TV during the Olympics last month, he was talking about playing on the national team at least once a week and no comments from Dad how football or baseball were much more interesting could deter him. Bill wasn’t all that into sports, but he liked to play with Georgie, liked to see the happiness and determination on his face._

_His brother ran towards him, dribbling the ball in front of him with only a little struggle. He’d gotten the hang of it surprisingly quick. He was actually better at it than Bill himself, which is why he opted to play goalie most of the time._

_They played like this for a while, Georgie trying to get past him to shoot the ball at the fence, Bill trying his hardest not to let him. Once or twice he’d shove Georgie or pull at his shirt and the smaller boy would put his hands on his hips and pout_ “That’s cheating! You can’t do that!”. _Georgie even managed to shoot two “goals” and only one of them was because Bill let him. Maybe Georgie really could be on the national soccer team and play at the Olympics someday. It would be quite fun to see his brother on TV or cheer him on at games._

_Georgie kicked the ball a little too hard as he dribbled towards him this time, making it land almost directly in front of Bill’s feet. With a smirk, he picked it up and threw it over Georgie’s head, meaning for it to land in the grass behind him, but his aim was just a little bit off and the ball hit the edge of the porch steps. It bounced off them and rolled down the path towards the sidewalk._

_“Billy”, Georgie groaned, already running after it._

_He opened his mouth to shout after him, something about not being such a baby and that he’d have to run a lot more in a real soccer match, but he suddenly felt this tug in his stomach, this feeling that told him to go after him. And while he took the first confused steps, he already sensed something was wrong. It was like a small voice in his ear whispering ‘run, run, run’ only it wasn’t a voice, it was just a feeling._

_“G-Georgie?” His mouth was dry, the tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth and his voice just a scratch in his throat._

_The ball had rolled towards the sidewalk. Towards the street. Georgie was giggling as he chased after it. His cheery laughter hanging in the autumn air was the only sound filling his ears._

_He didn’t see the car. Bill didn’t see the car either, but he sensed it. He felt it in the sudden, urgent tug in his guts. He swore he smelled the burning rubber on the asphalt, heard the brakes screech, but most clearly, he heard the dull thud as it hit a small boy running for his ball._

_“Georgie!”_

_He didn’t remember moving at all. One moment he stood by the fence and the next he was on the sidewalk, staring at his brothers twisted form on the asphalt. Somebody was screaming. So many footsteps. Glass crunching under shoes. The low sound of a ball rolling to the other side of the street. And Georgie looked back at him, his neck at an odd angle, his pale, blue eyes unblinking but still the ghost of a smile on his face._

It was his fault. If he had known about his power back then, he could’ve saved him. He should’ve saved him. He should’ve been more careful, should’ve protected him better.

“Shh”

He was enveloped by warmth as Stan draped himself along his back, throwing one leg over Bill’s and slinging his arms around his chest, holding him as tightly as he could. Warm breath brushed the nape of his neck, soft lips whispered words into his skin and Bill was so utterly undeserving of it all.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Bill could feel Stan’s steady heartbeat pressing into his back. A reassuring rhythm of ‘I – lived. I – lived. I – lived’. “That’s my promise to you. I’m not leaving you.”

The only answer he got was a strangled whimper, followed by ugly sobbing. Bill tried to muffle it by hiding his face in the pillow, but found he could barely move in Stan’s iron grip.

Stan didn’t say anything else and he didn’t have to. He’d fallen asleep, crying in Stan’s arms many times before. In Stan’s childhood bedroom. In the bed of Bill’s truck. In a moldy tent. And on thin mattresses in an abandoned asylum. He didn’t doubt that Stan could love him anymore, he only wondered why.

* * *

 

Mike didn’t have to be in El’s head to notice how on edge she was as they followed Richie and Beverly through the asylum. The only reason, he wasn’t more freaked out about this place was probably because he could hear Richie internally freaking out about him being here and Bev being more occupied with why Richie had never told her about having a twin. They clearly weren’t luring them into a trap like El probably thought, even though this place looked like a great spot for murder.

Richie’s mouth was running a mile a minute, but Mike had gotten good at tuning out speech when he was using his power and Richie’s thoughts were much more interesting. They were a bit all over the place, mostly a big whirl of curse words at the moment, but every now and then he’d go back to calling his parents – their parents – a big bag of dicks for separating them and wondering how he bet all odds by actually finding him.

Mike felt almost bad for not knowing he existed at all. He had known he was adopted for a long time, his parents had never made that a secret. If they had, Nancy would probably have blurted it out at one point anyway. The only time he’d wanted to meet his birth parents was after Will had told him that powers often were genetic and they probably had some too.

He lost control on his power, when Richie suddenly threw a door open on his right, gesturing for them to go inside. He caught a brief glimpse of El’s thoughts – _He talks a lot –_ , before he quickly suppressed his power all together.

“Welcome to my kingdom!”, Richie shouted.

“Welcome to the dump, you mean”, Beverly said. She made her way over to the window, found some candles and lit them. “Here resides the local Trashmouth.”

“Bev, don’t make me look bad in front of family!”

His room was small. The bed was bolted into the wall and unmade, a guitar covered in different stickers was leaning against it. Except for the bed there was no other furniture. Richie’s stuff was organized in piles: CDs in the opposite corner, a larger pile of clothes took up the space next to the door and a small pile of cigarettes and lighters in the windowsill. Next to the bed, balanced on old phonebooks was a rather new-looking radio.

El wasn’t interested in the room though. She walked straight up to Richie, who seemed to have frozen in shock of the close proximity, pushed his glasses up and swiped a finger over the purple eyeshadow. She inspected her finger first then held it up for Richie to see. “You’re wearing makeup.”

He snorted and took a few steps backwards. “Shit, I am.”

“But you’re a boy.”

Sighing, he grabbed a pack of cigarettes from the windowsill, offered Beverly one, who shook her head, and then lit one for himself.

“Boys can wear makeup too”, Beverly said. She placed the candles carefully around the room and then sat in the window, letting her feet dangle.

El looked back at Mike, waiting for confirmation. Richie was the first guy wearing makeup, he’d ever encountered, so he just shrugged, but he guessed there was nothing wrong with it.

Richie took a seat on the bed, then, when neither Mike or El moved from the door, he patted the mattress. “Don’t worry, I changed the sheets after I banged your mom last night.”

Did he just…? He’d been annoying when they had tried to interrogate him, but now he was just plain gross. Was this really his brother? Was he related to that? Great…

Beverly groaned and kicked him in the back. “His mom is your mom, Oedipus.”

The grin on Richie’s face was quickly replaced with a look of disgust. “Fuck, you’re right. Gross! Never mind then. Have a seat!”

When they did, El’s hand fisted the hem of his sweater and Mike wasn’t sure if that was for his or for her benefit. Richie exhaled, turning his head to blow the smoke away from him, but he could still smell it. He’d tried smoking exactly once, when Max had stolen a pack and they’d all given it a whirl. He had started coughing so violently, he’d been worried he’d cough up his lungs. Will had gotten white as a sheet and almost puked, Dustin had taken a few drags then claimed them to be disgusting and thrown his away. Only Max had finished hers, calling them all babies, but admitted it wasn’t really her thing either.

“How do you know we’re twins?”, he blurted out. Richie was a hundred percent sure on that and Mike wanted to believe him – they did look pretty much identical – but how come he knew and Mike didn’t? Why had nobody ever told him, he had a twin?

“Well, except for the obvious”, he said, gesturing between them. “Maggie would never shut up about you. The woman held you once for two fucking minutes and somehow that was better than having me for 16 years. Some people are hard to please.”

Even though Richie tried hard to hide it, Mike could still hear the bitterness in his voice. Maybe Richie wasn’t actually happy to see him at all, maybe he resented him without ever having known him. He’d taken all his disbelief earlier positively, but maybe he had misinterpreted it.

“She gave me up and kept you… why?” Maybe he hadn’t wanted to meet his biological parents that much, but he had thought a lot about why they had given him away. In his head, he had pictured them as a young couple, broke and unmarried. They just wanted the best for him.

“Because the old man didn’t want two kids. Well, he didn’t want a kid at all and then we turned out to be twins and he lost his fucking mind.” Richie sucked at his cigarette, his eyes fixed on the floor. “He wanted to give us both up, she wanted to keep us. They compromised.”

That was… not at all what he had imagined. Mike loosened his grip on his power and let his mind reach out towards Beverly and Richie. He just needed to be sure that Richie was telling him the truth and that he wasn’t either downplaying or exaggerating things.

Richie chuckled. “I guess I won the motherfucking lottery.”

No, the hatred for his parents seemed genuine enough. Beverly’s thoughts were mostly pity and hurt for her friend. She was well composed just sitting behind Richie and listening, but Mike could now hear her desire to reach out and hug him and wondered why she didn’t.

“What…” He hesitated, unsure if he should press Richie to talk about them more, but he just needed to know now. “What were they like?”

“They’re not dead, you know. Or maybe Maggie has drunken herself to death by now, who the hell knows.” Richie’s form rippled as he turned into a woman in her late 40s, her dark hair was in a messy up-do with individual curls falling into her face, her lips were dry and her grey eyes were rimmed with red. She looked like she hadn’t slept in several days. “Dear Mommy started drinking when she had to give you up and completely devoted herself to the bottles when I turned out to be such a disappointment.”

Mike stared at him, finding it hard to believe that this woman was his mother. She had their curls and their lips though. He was glad when Richie changed back into himself. When he brought the cigarette up to his lips, his hand was shaking slightly. “Wentworth wasn’t home much, when he was, there was always shouting.” _They only saw me when we were fighting._ For once, Richie’s thoughts came through loud and clear.

They’d met less than an hour ago and Mike already felt bad about how different their lives had been. If their mother had fought so hard to keep him, she should’ve treated him better, she should’ve protected and loved him just like Mike’s mom did.

“What happened to you? Couldn’t be that great if you’re out here on your own too.”

He didn’t dare meet Richie’s eyes. Part of him knew it was stupid to feel guilty for having better parents, but he wasn’t sure Richie would see it the same way. “Actually… actually my family is great. I had to leave them when ASHA came looking for me.”

His eyes shifted to Beverly, when she rather sarcastically thought of parents of Supers doing an actual good job at being parents. Didn’t look like any of them had good experiences with their families then. He already knew about Max’s and Lucas’s families being less than supportive of their powers, but had thought they were in the minority.

“Looks like you didn’t get the short end of the stick after all.” After one last drag, he handed the cigarette stump to Beverly, who opened the window and threw it out. “Congratulations.”

The smirk returned to Richie’s face as he looked at Mike. “I’m the prettier twin though. And I’m older.”

Mike snorted, ready to argue that he could tell him anything and Mike just had to believe it at this point.

But El beat him to it, leaning over his shoulder to fixate Richie. “Mike is pretty.”

He didn’t know if it was the compliment or Richie’s and Beverly’s laughter that made his cheek burn.

“Of course, Mikaela is pretty”, Richie said. “Just not as pretty as me.”

“It’s Mike!”

“We already have a Mike, lil bro. There can’t be two Mikes.”

Beverly nodded. “It’ll be confusing.”

“Michael then.”

Richie waved him off. “That’s what I said. Mikaela.”

Mike glared at him, which seemed to only make Richie grin wider. And here he had thought nobody could be more insufferable than teenage Nancy or Dustin on one of his rants about absolutely nothing.

He sighed. “Call me something else, literally anything else.”

“You’re going to regret that”, Beverly informed him.

Immediately he knew what she was talking about, when Richie’s brain came up with one stupid nickname after the other and he could hear them all through his power. Quickly he repressed his power, to save himself and to hopefully mask the fact he had been in their heads the whole time. They probably wouldn’t like that very much, nobody ever did.

“Anything for you, Michelle!”

Mike groaned. “You’re already worse than my sisters.”

The smirk fell from Richie’s face, replaced by an expression of complete surprise. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his middle finger. “You have sisters?”

“Two. Nancy is older, Holly is younger.”

“Oh.” Whatever that blank face was, it was quickly gone, when Richie turned into the dark-haired woman, he’d been when they first met. He flicked his long hair over his shoulder and smiled haughtily. “Must be hard when all your siblings are so much prettier than you.”

Beverly leaned forward, folding her hands on Richie’s head and resting her chin on them. “Be nice to your brother, Rich.”

“Yes, mom”, he said, rolling his eyes.

At the sound of approaching footsteps, they all turned towards the door just as the other Mike poked his head in. His face was glowing, the smile stretching a little bigger when his eyes rested on Richie and Beverly for a second before he turned to him and El. “The others are in the kitchen. We’ve set up some beds for you.”

El’s face lit up at that. “Beds?”

She’d almost fallen asleep on him earlier at the fire and that felt like hours ago not to mention how strenuous it must’ve been to fight against Beverly. The others were probably just as exhausted and all he’d cared about was him talking to Richie. Carefully he loosened her grip on his sweater to take her hand and pull her up. “Sleep sounds perfect”, he told Mike.

“Mikey!”, Richie whined, just as they turned to leave. At first he wasn’t sure who he had meant. Except for his family nobody had ever called him Mikey, but then again Richie kind of was family, simultaneously more and less so than the Wheelers.

The other Mike didn’t seem to have any doubts, though, as he squeezed past him and El to sit next to Richie on the bed, so close their knees knocked together. “What’s up?”

Richie didn’t say anything, just looked from Beverly to Mike and El. She hopped from the windowsill and joined them at the door. “Come on, I’ll show you to the kitchen.”

Mike followed her reluctantly out of the room. Although they were in the same place and realistically Richie wouldn’t go anywhere, he felt like his brother might disappear if he took his eyes off him for too long. Maybe he hadn’t known about him before, but he definitely wanted to get to know him now. He needed to know more about him and maybe he could find a way to make it up to him. He wondered what life would’ve been like if their places had been switched. He’d never have met the Wheelers or Will, maybe not even any of his other friends. Maybe ASHA would’ve gotten him, if he didn’t have anyone to look out for him.

As if sensing his dark thoughts, El squeezed his hand. Her gaze lingered inquiringly on him until he nodded his head, telling her he was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got so long, I'm sorry! But there's a lot of them now  
> And I still haven't come up with a good way to distinguish between the two Mikes other than just using their last names


	6. Chapter 6

With the morning sun illuminating her hair, it truly did look like it was on fire. January Embers, he had called it in one of his poems. One of the many poems, he had never given her. They were all still in the drawer of his desk. He’d probably never have the heart to give them to her.

Her hand was hanging over the edge of the bed, her fingertips barely grazing his pillow. It still felt like an intrusion that she let him sleep in here so often, not to mention that she would hold his hand as they both fell asleep. Ben felt like a big baby; he was 20 years old and couldn’t sleep on his own. It seemed like a miracle none of the others made fun of him for it, or in Richie’s case not anymore. By now he didn’t even have to ask. Most nights, Beverly made him a bed on her floor and when she didn’t, it didn’t take long for Eddie or Mike to come into his room and settle in for the night. He loved them all for it, but especially enjoyed the nights he spent with Bev. It meant he got to enjoy mornings like this, when he was the first to wake up and had time to revel in her beauty. Her hair framed her face like a halo, her skin covered in freckles that Ben wanted to kiss so badly, and her lips, soft and pink and slightly parted as she breathed evenly.

 

_He’d been sitting on his bed, counting the tiles on the floor. Still 88. The amount hadn’t changed in the past nine years, but there wasn’t much else to do once they brought him back to his room after a day of training and experiments. Although he couldn’t use his powers with the collar around his neck, he wasn’t allowed to have much. One book a week, and all they usually gave him was non-fiction. No stories about adventures and princesses and magic like the ones he used to get at the library. He could barely remember that now._

_This week’s book was about video surveillance, to go hand in hand with the specialized cameras and microphones and other funny gadgets they had him make during his training. Ben was glad for the change. He still had to go to the shooting range twice a week, but he didn’t have to learn about all the weapons they could think off and create them. Now he just wished he could unlearn all of that._

_He’d been sitting there, counting, to pass the 7184 seconds until dinner time. That was when he felt the weight around his throat loosen and then the collar fell into his lap. He remembered them taking the collar off three times in all his time here at the facility and it had only been to give him a bigger one as he grew. Even during training, they just disabled them, never took them off, because if he misbehaved they could give him electroshocks through them. Now here he was with the collar in his lap and he was free._

_Grabbing the collar and the book, he ran for the door. There was no handle on this side of it, no lock, no hinges. Just the little hatch so the guards could peer inside. He tried throwing his weight against the door, but it wouldn’t budge and he was pretty sure he was going to have a bruised shoulder later. The book in his hand turned into a gun, then into an axe, but neither did much damage. The door was made of heavy steel on the outside, he knew, and on the inside, it merged almost seamlessly with the walls. That was just his luck, wasn’t it? For some reason, the collar didn’t work anymore to suppress his power, but he still couldn’t get out of his cell. His one chance wasted like that._

_Not willing to give up that easily, he ran at the door again. This time a sharp pain shot through his right shoulder. He ignored it, he was going to get out of here or break his bones trying._

_He took a moment to gather his strength and prepare himself for the pain then ran at the door again just as it opened. Or rather, just as it was ripped out of the wall and flung down the corridor. Ben tried to catch himself, but only managed to skid to a halt right in front of the girl who’d rescued him, making them both stumble._

_With their noses almost touching, Ben could do nothing but stare at her. He’d been here for 9 years, he’d seen some of the other kids that were held here, but never her. He’d have remembered her._

_And then he was on the floor. His chest hurting almost as much as his shoulder where she had pushed him._

_“I need to get out”, she told him._

_Right, of course. They would find a way to shut the facility down and suppress their powers without the collars and their chance would’ve passed._

_“I can help with that.”_

_He grabbed the collar and the axe from his room, turning them both into guns and held one out to her._

_She shook her head. “I don’t need it, but you keep yours.”_

_Ben looked at the hole in the wall where the door had been and nodded. She was going to be fine on her own._

_“Thanks for getting me out”, he said as he started to lead her down the corridor._

_“Don’t thank me yet.”_

 

Carefully he moved his own hand closer to hers, brushing his fingers softly against hers. With how cold it got here during the night, he wasn’t surprised to find them to be icicles. Not wanting her to be cold, Ben sat up, gently took her arm and pushed it under her covers.

He was pleased with himself until he noticed her eyes were open, watching him curiously. Quickly he moved away from her, feeling his entire head heating up.

A small sound escaped her, something that could’ve been a giggle or a snort. “Good morning, Ben.”

“Morning, Bev. I just… I’m sorry. I didn’t want to… It’s… it’s cold and…”

This time he was sure, she was giggling. Even when she was laughing at him, it was still his favourite sound. He liked all her laughs; the quiet, girlish giggle and the loud, gasping for air kind that often followed Richie’s jokes. If only he could make her laugh like that, make her whole body shake with happiness. It was what she deserved.

“Thank you”, she said, shivering under the covers. “It is really cold in here.”

He wished there was something he could do about that, but there was only so much he could do without electricity.

“How did you sleep?”, she asked.

“Surprisingly well.” He hadn’t woken up once during the night, which was rare and then he was usually the first one up too. When he slept in Bev’s room, he would stay in bed until she woke up, if he was in his own room, he’d get up and start making breakfast.

She scooted closer to the edge of the bed, closer to him, and smiled. “It was a crazy day yesterday, it must’ve tired you out.”

Crazy was an understatement. Not only had they met a bunch of other Supers and gotten into a fight with them, but one of them was Richie’s brother, while none of them had even known he had one.

“You don’t have any secret brothers, do you?”, she asked. “I don’t think I can handle another surprise like that.”

He laughed. “No.” And then he thought of his mother, all alone now. After escaping the facility, he’d tried to find her even though Mike and Bill had told him he couldn’t reach out to her. ASHA would be monitoring her and know as soon as he tried to contact her. The warnings had been pointless, there had been no trace of an Arlene Hanscom. He hoped that meant, she’d found a man and remarried after he disappeared. “Not that I know of.”

“Me neither. Thank God.”

The question why, was on the tip of his tongue already, and then he remembered her father. All he knew was that Bev hated her father, and Richie – who was the only one she ever told about him – hated him even more. Part of him wanted to ask, wanted to know so he could be there for her. He just wanted her to trust him, but he also knew that trust didn’t work like that. So he never asked and she never said anything.

* * *

 

The kitchen had never been this loud, but six added people would do that. Mike rubbed his temples as he tried to drown out the argument between Dustin and Richie over whether an apple or a banana would win in a fight; it didn’t help that Eddie, Max and Will egged them on by throwing other fruits into the debate.

“Dude”, Richie said. “A banana is gun-shaped. It’s practically a gun, it’ll shoot the apple dead.”

“That is stupid on so many levels”, Max sighed.

“There’s no scenario where the banana wins”, Dustin said. “If it’s a race, the apple wins no problem. A banana can’t even move. The apple is firmer and heavier, it’ll squish the banana in a physical fight.”

“The apple is so round, it wouldn’t be able to grab the banana. Its arms are too short”, Richie countered.

“Apples don’t have arms”, Eddie pointed out. “But if fruits could grow arms and get into fist fights, my bet is on the strawberry.”

Richie nodded. “Valid choice.”

“How the fuck is that a valid choice?”, Max asked. “I’ll pick the watermelon and end you all!”

Both Richie and Dustin shook their heads at that. “The watermelon doesn’t stand a chance. Sorry.”

“What about a grape?”, Will asked.

Mike got up from his seat next to them. That was too much nonsense this early in the morning. Bev, Lucas and the other Mike had volunteered to do the dishes – probably just to get away from the same mind-numbing conversation. Ben and El entertained each other by making random objects float and transforming them into something else. At the moment, Mike would probably be safest drinking his coffee in peace by Bill and Stan, who sat at the other end of the table with their heads pushed together.

“What are you whispering about?”, he asked, as he sat down next to Bill.

The two boys exchanged a knowing look, huge grins on both of their faces. It almost made him regret he’d asked.

“We’re bet-t-t-t-ting”, Bill said.

“Betting on what?”

“Who Richie is going to crush on next.” Stan looked around the room. “I think it’s going to be El.”

Bill shook his head. “It’s g-g-going to buh-be Max or D-Dustin.”

Mike looked at them blankly, waiting for them to crack, to laugh it off and tell him what they were really talking about. They didn’t, instead they stared back at him with the same blank look.

“Don’t tell us you haven’t noticed. He’s had a crush on all of us before and then Eddie joined and was the new exciting thing. It only makes sense, he’ll do the same now.”

They’d all known about Richie and Bev, they hadn’t been very subtle about it, but everyone else? Sure, he’d flirt with all of them a bit here and there, but that was just who he was. “No, he doesn’t.”

Bill snickered. “He does. When we m-met Richie, he’d f-f-f-flirt with us all the t-time. Jok-k-kingly, of course, but if we’d been into it, he wouldn’t have b-b-b-backed down.”

“Or the way he was completely gone for you until Bev and Ben showed up.”

Mike spat a little of his coffee and quickly covered his mouth with his hands. They were definitely kidding now, they had to. If Richie had liked him like that, he would’ve noticed. Back then, they’d been together all the time, practically living on top of each other in Richie’s van. He would’ve noticed.

Bill and Stan exchanged another knowing look. “We thought you j-j-just weren’t int-t-terested.”

“You’re joking, right?” They shook their heads. “Why did you not tell me?”

“It was so obvious. How did you not know?”

He tried to see it, looking back on it now, but still couldn’t see how their friendship then was different from their friendship now. Maybe he didn’t make quite as many dirty jokes as he did before, but that was pretty much it.

“I just thought he was that way with everyone.” He shrugged. “Not as touchy with you guys because you’re together, but yeah… That’s just who Richie is.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t see his gross longing looks.”

“There were no longing looks.”

Stan nodded towards the group Mike had just left, where Richie was not so secretly admiring Eddie who was in a heated debate with Max about something. “He looked at you just like that.”

“Oh.”

Bill snickered. “I can’t be-luh-luh-lieve you d-didn’t know. Would you have been int-t-to it?”

He felt his cheeks warm and quickly hid the nervous smile by gulping down the rest of his coffee. He’d never thought about any of them like that, being content just the way things were. And thinking about it now that Richie didn’t have those feelings for him anymore, was pointless anyway, so he shrugged.

“Anyway, who do you think is going to be next?”

 

_“Mikey”, Richie whined. It was all he could say with the others in the room, but it was enough. Mike had heard that same tone of voice many times before when they were curled up next to each other in Richie’s van, their breaths stood in little clouds between them and the late hour and darkness had worn down most of Richie’s walls._

_He squeezed past El and Richie’s brother to sit next to him, bumping their knees together. “What’s up?”_

_They waited until Bev had led the others outside and closed the door and then Richie collapsed against him like a deflating balloon. He gave up the face and changed into his own self. Despite Richie being taller, Mike could easily pull him into his lap, rest Richie’s head against his shoulder and gently run a hand through his hair. “What’s up?”_

_Richie didn’t cry, he never did. His arms wrapped around Mike’s torso and squeezed. “It’s dumb.”_

_“Aren’t you happy about your brother?”_

_“I wanted to meet him so fucking bad, Mike.”_

_He waited, too many questions only made Richie shut down, so he let him have his time. Eventually he’d elaborate. How could this have gone wrong? If his brother had been an asshole, Bev would’ve hurt him something bad, so it couldn’t be that._

_“I always thought that my brother would have it bad, that he would want his real family and want me, you know. But Mike… Mike has a family, a good one. He even has sisters. Why would he want me, when he has sisters? He’s going to take his friends and leave and be like ‘Thanks for telling me about our shitty parents. Good luck with the rest of your life’.” He shivered a little as Mike ran a hand down his spine. “My own fucking twin doesn’t even want me. It’s not fair!”_

_“Who says, he doesn’t?”_

_“I know he doesn’t! Even he is better off without me.”_

_“He didn’t even know he had a twin brother until an hour ago, Richie. Let him catch up first.”_

_“I bet his sisters are perfect little princesses”, he spat. “The older one looking out for him and giving him advice and shit and the younger one looking up to him and wanting to hold his hand when they cross the street and it’s all disgusting and happy.”_

_Mike hummed. “Maybe.”_

_“And I’m not like that. I’m annoying and loud and a real dick and always in the way and…”_

_He was cut off by Mike laughing quietly. “You’re none of that.”_

_“Bullshit!”_

_“Rich, you’re not in the way and you’re not a dick. You’re loud, but we love that about you. We want you here and we need you.”_

_Richie huffed, his hot breath tickling Mike’s neck. Mike smiled, when he didn’t argue with him. “Your brother is not going to just leave. He’ll get to know you and he’ll love you just like we do.” He dragged the tips of his fingers over Richie’s scalp. “And you’ll like having sisters. Having a twin brother is different of course, but the sisters will be great too. They’ll all love you so much, I just know it.”_

_They sat like that for a while, Richie curled against him only making soft sounds now and then to let Mike know he was listening, and Mike murmuring about how loved he was. The truth was, he needed this just as much today. It reminded him of being 6 years old and sitting on his mother’s lap just like Richie was now, how she’d kiss him on the top of his head, on his forehead and on his nose, how she’d call him her “little sunshine”._

Mike shook his head. “I don’t think he’ll move on any time soon.” Richie had other things going on right now, there would be no time to fall for someone new.

“Did he finally adm-m-m-m-m-mit it then?”, Bill asked.

“Did he say something to you?” Stan lifted an eyebrow, unconvinced. No surprise there. They all knew Richie liked Eddie, but Richie would rather cut off his own tongue than to confirm that. “If he has, we need to know.”

“Why?”

Bill grinned, but at least he had the sense to look bashful when he said: “Another b-bet.”

* * *

 

He looked at his friends as they stood in a small circle outside the front door. Mike couldn’t see anyone else, but he could feel their eyes. They’d gone out here to discuss what do next without their new friends listening in, but as soon as he reached out with his power, he could hear several of them close by. They probably stood by the windows in the kitchen and watched them.

“I say, we stay”, Dustin said. “This is a good place.”

“We don’t even know if they’d let us”, Will said.

_He’s going to leave. He’s going to leave and I’ll never see him again._

_They almost kill us and we still let them crash here, but sure, we’re the ones who can’t be trusted._

He had to reel his power back in order to pay attention to his friends.

“Richie already said we could stay”, Dustin said. At the mention of his brothers, he couldn’t help but smile. He was very eager for them to stay, not that he said it out loud, but Mike had spent the whole morning in his head. Either Richie had forgotten about his powers or he didn’t even try to be subtle about his need for Mike to like him. At first it had been a bit off-putting, to be honest, but Richie didn’t even know him and already liked him so much?

_Mike!_ He cast a quick glance at Max. She and Dustin were the only ones who liked talking to him like this. Not all the time, but sometimes Max just felt she wasn’t being understood no matter how well she tried to express herself.

Once he reached out for her, she didn’t have to direct her thoughts to him. Right now she was thinking about putting it to the vote and she knew Lucas and El would vote to leave – Mike knew that too. She was wondering about Mike and Richie and if he would split their group up over it.

_I need to stay._ It hurt him to admit that he would. _A little bit longer at least._

There were brief thoughts about Max’s brother. They were gone to quickly for Mike to really hear them, but they weren’t good. To his surprise she wasn’t angry with him. _I figured._ She’d played the whole vote out in her head already, he now realized, just had to be sure what he was going to choose to make her own choice.

“Let’s just vote”, she said. “Everyone in favour of staying?”

Dustin’s hand shot up immediately, Mike’s and Max’s followed. _Thank you._

_Don’t mention it, Psycho._

“That’s three against three”, Lucas said.

“No, it’s…” Mike was about to protest, when he realized that Will had voted to leave. “Will?”

He had supported him just last night, so what had changed? Mike had gotten so used to being on the same side as Will that it took him completely by surprise. And he was hurt. Will out of all people should understand how important it was for him to get to know Richie.

“It’s not safe”, El said. “ASHA is going to be looking for us everywhere, staying so close by and in such a big group is just stupid.”

Will nodded, pointedly not meeting his eyes. “We’re too many to hide.”

He knew Will didn’t like it, when he was in his head. There were things Mike wasn’t supposed to know, that he knew anyway, but that were left unspoken between them.

“Why do you suddenly want to stay?”, Lucas asked Max.

“If we leave now, we’ll probably just run into ASHA as soon as we hit the road. We missed our window of opportunity last night. I think it’s best if we hide out here for now.”

Mike ignored them, reaching out for Will with his power. He was a very visual thinker, something Mike couldn’t get used to and being in Will’s head was often more confusing than anything. Now wasn’t any different. He got a lot of swirling images, judging by the amount of blood and flying debris, Will was thinking about what a confrontation with ASHA would lead to. Most of all Mike got a sense of horror, the kind that settled in your heart and turned your body into stone, the kind that made you stare at the oncoming train, unable to move. Will wasn’t just scared, he was terrified of staying here.

Mike pulled away. It felt like someone had punched him in the gut. It was his fault that Will was out here with them in the first place, he should never have let him leave his family with him. How could he possibly make him stay here if it scared him so much?

Mike sighed. “You should all leave.”

“Finally”, Lucas said. “You’re coming to your senses.”

“I’m going to stay, Lucas, but I can’t make you. You should get on the bus and go south like we planned.”

“And leave you behind?”

“I’ll be fine here.”

“You can’t stay!”

“Will, I have to. He’s my brother.”

“And what about us?”, Lucas asked. “We don’t matter? You don’t even know the guy.”

Not yet, he didn’t, but he knew enough. “That’s not fair, Lucas. You know that’s not true.”

Will shook his head, almost furiously. “No! You can’t stay here, it’s not safe!”

It made them all stop for a moment. Had he seen something? He hadn’t told anyone about that vision that freaked him out yesterday, maybe it was that. Or maybe he had seen something in his dreams, that happened a lot. Something that would explain his fear of staying here.

His hand found its place on Will’s shoulder, but before he could ask, El beat him to it. “Did you see something?”

He shook his head.

“Are you sure?”, Mike asked, his voice low. “You can tell us.”

Will looked up at him, big brown eyes searching his face for… something. Mike squeezed his shoulder. If he saw something that bothered him so much, he’d be here for him. Just because he was burdened by these visions, didn’t mean he’d have to bear them alone.

“Nothing”, Will sighed, looking away. “Just… it’s not safe.”

“Nowhere is safe”, Mike said. “Not really.”

To his surprise it was Lucas, who caved. “Maybe Max is right”, he said. “Maybe it is better to wait it out here and leave when everything has died down. We could stay a few more days.”

Mike smiled at him, knowing Lucas only did it to keep the group together, only did it for him. “A few more days”, he agreed.

“But then we’re leaving. All of us.”

A few days was all he needed. A lot could happen in a few days, people could change their minds. He just needed the time to figure things out, figure out what he wanted to do about Richie, so he nodded.

“Do you promise?”, El asked. “We’re leaving in a few days?”

He winced internally. _A promise is something that can’t be broken. Ever._ He still remembered explaining to her what promise meant. Promises were important and he never made one lightly, but promises to El were different entirely.

“I promise”, he lied.

____________________________

El swung their clasped hands between them. “He promised”, she said. “You don’t have to worry anymore.”

Will faked a smile. Mike had never broken a promise or lied to her before, so he could see how she’d be reassured by that, but he knew Mike better. He knew how stubborn his friend could be, especially when it came to family and friends. Mike had been the one insisting they don’t call their families to keep them safe, that they stay away from people after what happened with Dustin, that they let Lucas and El join. Will didn’t believe for one second that Mike would just walk away from Richie. And he would support him, wouldn’t want to split up the brothers, but… The images flashed through his mind again. He hadn’t been able to shake them after the vision and for the first time in a long while, he knew he had to change it. He couldn’t let this happen.

After the vote, neither of them had wanted to go back inside and instead opted to walk around the grounds. There wasn’t much to see, the trees surrounding the asylum weren’t much different from those at the old trainyard, the once trimmed lawn was growing wildly, the grass reaching all the way up to his thighs. It was peaceful, though. Except for the occasional plane, there was no sign of other people, just the singing of the birds and the leaves rustling in the wind.

 “I’m just worried about ASHA”, he said.

She squeezed his hand. “Will Byers, always worried.”

He scoffed. “You’re always worried yourself.”

She shrugged, he shrugged, and then they burst into quiet laughter. According to all the movies and books, he was supposed to hate her, but by the time she and Mike had become a thing, they’d already been friends. He could see why Mike liked her, and Will wasn’t an idiot. He had known that his feelings were one-sided long before El had shown up. It wasn’t her fault, so why take it out on her.

“Want to see something cool?”, she asked, smiling almost mischievously.

When she stopped, so did he, watching with interest as she shoved her free hand into her jeans pocket and pulled out a small figurine. She let it hover over her palm, making it look like Han Solo was floating in the air. “Ben made it for me this morning. Out of his fork.”

“We never got around to show you those movies”, Will said. By now she probably knew all about Star Wars though, they’d told the story in vivid detail too many times.

“Someday.” She said it so surely as if she knew that someday they wouldn’t have to hide like this anymore, that they’d be free to go to the movies or rent a video of Star Wars without anyone looking at them twice. “I was going to give it to Mike, but I want you to have it instead.”

She closed her hand into a fist, then let it drop, but the figurine remained in the air between them. Will took it, turning it over in his hand. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. He’s not that fun when he can’t float on his own like the real Ham Solo, but it’s something.”

Will didn’t know if she was serious or not, El’s humour being a bit weird, but he couldn’t hold back his laughter. “It’s Han Solo. And he can’t float, he can’t make things float either.”

She stopped for a second, then shrugged. “Sucks to be him. Poor Ham Solo.”

Alright, she was definitely doing it on purpose. Will could picture her feigning innocence while slowly driving Dustin or Mike mad with the wrong names and the subpar Star Wars knowledge, it only made him laugh harder.

“Yeah”, he agreed. “Poor Ham Solo.” 

They turned the corner to the back of the building. Will had been here briefly last night, when Max had parked the bus here. Next to the bus was the van and the truck the others had come in and a motorcycle. Most of the grass back here was flat where the cars had driven over it, and a large part of it was cleared out completely to make room for a vegetable garden. It seemed to be in pretty good shape as far as Will could tell, who had never seen one up close, except for that one time they had gotten desperate and stolen a bunch of vegetables from a garden in the middle of the night.

Mikey was walking between the plants with a rusty watering can. Richie had proposed they distinguish between the two Mikes by calling his brother Michelle, Lucas had suggested going by last names, Stan had jokingly proposed Mike 1 and Mike 2 and Dustin had said one of them could just go by their full name. Beverly had laughed at that _“I’m not calling you Michael. That’s one step away from Mr Hanlon. Too formal.”_ In the end Mike had offered to go by Mikey – something his friends called him sporadically anyway – and that had been that.

When he saw them approaching, Mikey straightened up and gave them a small wave. El slowed down her pace, in order to look closely at the different plants, brushing her hand over the leaves.

“Is this your work?”, Will asked.

He followed El’s gaze to the tomato plants, a soft expression on his face. “Most of it, yes.”

Not for the first time, Will wondered how long they had lived here if they’d had the time to keep a garden and furnish and decorate the living space inside. It didn’t look like they were going to leave this place any time soon. It worried him. Mike would have to leave Richie behind or choose to stay here and abandon their group. Both seemed unlikely, but not as unlikely as Richie leaving the asylum and coming with them.

“Do you want to help?”, Mikey asked and held out the watering can.

El surprised them both, when she took the can from him without hesitation. Mikey had apparently not expected them to take up the offer and Will hadn’t thought gardening was something she’d be interested in.

Mikey’s surprise quickly changed into a warm smile. “I’m done watering these, but the cucumbers and tomatoes over there still need water.”

Will watched her wander around the plants, watering them with way more concentration than was necessary, before turning back to Mikey. “What else needs to be done?”

“Weeding and harvesting, but you really don’t have to. I usually do this by myself.”

“The others don’t help you?”, Will asked, already getting down on his knees. He didn’t mind. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do.

Mikey laughed, quiet and breathy. “Could you imagine? Ben and Bev help very rarely. Richie keeps me company with cigarettes and jokes, but he’s no help at all.”

He knelt down across from Will, his hands moved quickly and expertly as they ripped out all the small weeds. Will’s own hands worked slower; he wasn’t completely sure which plants were wanted and which were considered weeds, and just followed Mikey’s lead.

“But that’s okay”, he continued. “I like doing this. I missed it.”

“You used to have a garden at home?”

“A farm actually.”

“I like farms”, El piped up. “We stayed on a farm once and slept in the hay. It was great.”

It had been one of their better places to crash and the couple owning the farm, hadn’t asked many questions as long as they helped out around the place and were out of their hair once the harvest was done. They had probably known what they were and what it would mean if anybody found them on their property, it was fun while it lasted though.

“It’s a shame we can’t have any animals. It would be nice to have some chicken.”

“You have Richie”, El said, giggling. “He can turn into a chicken for you.”

Mikey’s laugh was deep, rumbling in his chest. Will could almost feel it resonate in his own body. “He actually does that sometimes.” He took a deep breath. The laughter faded, leaving traces of happiness in the faint lines around his lips. “Anything to show off his power.”

“Our show-off is El”, Will said, not surprised that he was hit in the back of his head seconds later with a floating watering can. He reached up to rub the spot. “Ow! Case in point.”

She came over to kneel next to him, bumping her shoulder into his. “I’m not a show-off.”

“I was just teasing.” Although he thought she knew, he always made sure to clarify these things for her. In the beginning sarcasm and a many of their jokes had gone over her head, he assumed there weren’t many opportunities for humour at ASHA’s labs. She’d been quick to catch on, but Will would rather make sure she understood than accidentally hurting her feelings.

She pushed the sleeves of her oversized sweater up to her elbows before copying Mikey, digging her fingers into the soft earth to pull potatoes out. He watched her closely. At first Will thought, he was just making sure, she didn’t pull out any unripe ones, but then he realized Mikey was staring at her tattoo.

“Eleven”, he murmured. “ASHA got you too.”

El immediately pulled her sleeve down to cover it. They never spoke about the tattoos, always pretended they didn’t see them, because talking about ASHA was hard. It made Lucas angry enough to lose control of his powers and El just got sad and quiet. It wasn’t a good topic.

“I shouldn’t have said anything, I’m sorry. I should know better”, Mikey said.

“You know what it means”, Will said. “Do you have one too?”

Mikey shook his head. “Ben and Bev do.”

El leaned forward a little and said something Will couldn’t hear. He didn’t hear Mikey’s response either as he felt himself being dragged away. The world around him dissolved in heavy, grey fog.

_While he knew he was having a vision somewhere in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but feel watched, time was ticking and he had to get out._ _Slowly the fog cleared, and he found himself creeping through a long corridor. They were moving so slowly, while his heart was racing, urging him to speed up and get out. There were multiple doors lining the corridor – heavy metal doors, some of which had a small hatch to look inside, but most were closed. His focus wasn’t on escape, as much as every nerve in his body screamed at him to run, but rather on the doors. There was something behind them he needed to see._

_Nobody stopped him as he moved to open the hatch to one of them and peered inside. His companions, who he could only feel but not see, seemed to wait for him. Behind the door was a small, windowless room with bare walls. It was sparsely furnished with just a small dresser, a single bed and a desk. The boy sprawled out on the bed raised his head at the sound of the latch opening, the bored expression on his face being replaced by a crooked smile._

_Then somebody shut the latch abruptly._

_“We have to get him out”, Will heard himself say with a voice that wasn’t quite his own_

_“No! Not that one!”_

It took him a while to come back to the present. His head was cushioned on someone’s lap and he could clearly see El looking down at him, her curls flopping into her face, but his brain couldn’t keep up. It seemed to take forever for him to make the connection that he knew her, that she was his friend and that this was reality, when it actually just took a few seconds. The short moment after his visions when he didn’t quite know who he was, were always the worst.

“Are you okay?”, El asked.

He sat up cautiously and nodded, not feeling like his tongue was ready to cooperate with him just yet.

“You scared Mikey.”

The other boy smiled coyly. “Thought you wanted to kiss the earth for a second there. I didn’t know your visions looked like that.”

Will snorted. He was kind of glad his visions did look like him having some kind of fit because it was the only way nobody in Hawkins had suspected him to have a power. He was just the weird kid who passed out a lot. It led to plenty of bullying, but at least it had kept ASHA away.

“What did you see?”, El asked.

“I’m… not sure”, he said. The place was not one, he’d ever been in, he didn’t know who was with him or if he had been himself in that vision and he certainly didn’t know the boy with the smile. In the vision it hadn’t bothered him, but remembering it now… There was something about that look that made him feel cold all over. “I really don’t know.”

Mikey placed a hand on his shoulder, the warmth bleeding into him and chasing away the chill in his bones, but the touch only lasted for a moment before he pulled away again. “Was it that bad? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I don’t know. I was scared in the vision. I was walking down this really long hallway and I was looking for something, but I don’t know what. I couldn’t even tell you if it was something that had already happened or not.” Sometimes he felt like he needed a whole second ability to make sense of these visions, but maybe that was for the best, maybe it would only drive him insane if he always knew what was going to happen and how.

* * *

 

It had started with Beverly deciding she needed to see what she could do when Dustin was amplifying her powers and that had led to them all showing off what they could do behind the asylum. They needed to keep a low profile, so Stan, Lucas, El and Beverly were told to hold back, but Dustin was still having the time of his life. And at the same time, he didn’t. He could help his friends do all these amazing things, but without them he was useless. There wasn’t anything Super about him. It was a really shitty power to have.

But seeing all these powers in action made him excited. There was so much power here and in the hands of his friends, Dustin knew it could be used to help people. It wasn’t all bad like ASHA wanted the world to believe.

“Hey Dustin.” He looked to Bill, who was waving him over. “We w-w-w-want to suh-see how strong my shields can get.”

So far they had found out that Mikey’s power didn’t change much with Dustin’s help, but it made him immune to pain, Ben’s power lost a lot of its limitations and Stan and Beverly only got a boost to their power.

Dustin went to stand behind Bill, while their friends positioned themselves in a loose circle around them. Hopefully Bill would be strong enough to hold them off, otherwise this was going to be really painful. They had to do it though, for science.

“Ready?”, he asked, and grabbed Bill’s shoulder when he nodded.

He didn’t feel anything, he never did, if anything he felt a little awkward holding onto people he barely knew like this. When Bill raised his arms, and put up a shield around them, he couldn’t see it, but he felt it close around them like a dome. Suddenly the faint breeze was gone and the sounds were a little bit muffled.

“Okay, go ahead!”, Bill said.

Stan’s lightning was the first to hit, engulfing the whole dome in light blue sparks like a spider web and then extinguished without any visible damage being done. It was closely followed by a tree El flung at them and rocks from Lucas, both bounced of the shield. Richie, in the form of a rhino was next, charging and running at the shield full speed, but only stumbled backwards and fell. Beverly pounded on the shield with all her strength.

Bill only started to struggle, when they came all at once. It showed first in the tensing muscles under Dustin’s hand, the sweat forming at his temples and the base of his neck, then his hands started to shake and eventually Dustin saw the shield flicker with every new attack.

_…very lovely knees. You hear that? Lovely knees? What kind of compliment is that?_ Mike’s voice started to come through midsentence, which was odd, but Dustin was even more confused about what he was saying.

Their eyes locked across the field, a grin spreading across Mike’s face. _You can hear me now, can’t you?_

_What the hell are you going on about, Mike?_

_I know, I’d thought you’d break way earlier._

_How long have you been talking to me?_

_What do you mean? The whole time._

Somehow El always knew when Mike was in her head, but Dustin could never tell, not to mention being able to keep him out. That was new and was probably not something he had managed to do on his own.

The attacks died down as the others noticed Bill’s strain, as soon as they were safe, he let the crumbling shield fall away completely and ran his hands through his hair. “That was…”

“Fun!”, Richie said, as soon as he was back in his own body. “You could protect us against anything with Bob Ross’s help here.”

“You’re not wrong”, Dustin said as the others came closer. Everyone but Will, who was sitting in the bed of Bill’s truck, drawing something with deep concentration. Dustin wasn’t sure, he’d even looked up once while everybody was testing out their powers. “I think your shield even held off Mike’s powers. Do they usually work on psychic powers?”

“Uh… I d-d-d-don’t know. I have n-n-never t-tried using them on psychic p-p-powers.”

“Only one way to find out”, Max said. “Our local Psycho is all yours.” She gave Mike a little push forward, which earned her a glare, although that might just have been his natural reaction to the nickname. Honestly, Lucas got the short end of the stick when it came to Max’s nicknames. Calling Will and Mike Psychos because of their psychic abilities was one thing, but calling her own boyfriend Stalker because he’d been head over heels for her? He was just glad, Max didn’t have one for him and El, although maybe he’d prefer that to Bob Ross. He didn’t even know who that was supposed to be and why Richie called him that, but Eddie and Bill seemed to think it was hilarious.

Bill wiped the sweat from his brow, took a moment to gather himself and threw up another shield. Judging by Mike’s expression this one did nothing to keep him out, so Dustin reached out again and gave Bill a boost. It only took a second for Mike’s smirk to turn into a scowl, this being the first time he was actually unable to use his power on someone.

“Dustin’s right”, he said. “I can get through the normal shield, but not when he’s helping you.”

“Looks like we finally found a way to keep you out for good”, Lucas said.

Mike rolled his eyes. “You know I have better things to do than listen to your boring thoughts all day.”

“Mhm, I bet. You have these very important thoughts like ‘El is so great’, ‘I love El’, ‘I hope El likes me too’.”

“Shut up!”, Mike hissed, punching Lucas in the arm, but that didn’t stop the rest of them from laughing at his expanse. His rosy cheeks were indicator enough for how close Lucas had gotten to the truth.

Richie threw an arm around Mike and pinched his cheek. “Aww, does my little brother have a crush? That’s so cute!”

Seeing them stand side by side was still very weird, it was as if Mike had cloned himself into a funnier person.

“Crush would be an understatement,” Dustin said.

“Puppy love”, Richie agreed. “The purest kind of love. Michelle and El sitting in a tree…”

Mike elbowed him in the ribs before he could finish his teasing and shoved him away. “Fuck off, Richie!”

Richie pouted at Mike as he rubbed his rib. “Oh I see how it is. Your heart is not big enough to love us both.”

“That’s not true”, El said confidently, giving Richie one of her intense looks with full on eye-contact. That did shut him up. He pushed his glassed up his nose and nodded shortly. “Mike loves you too. He is a very loving person.”

Mike rubbed his nose, his cheeks turning a deeper shade of red. “Thanks, El.”

“Is that a euphemism?”, Richie muttered under his breath.

Luckily, their attention was drawn away from him because Will had decided to join them again. He held on to the sketch pad for a moment, then passed it to Mike and El. “I drew my vision.”

“From today?”, El asked.

With all of them crowding around the drawing it was a bit difficult to get a good look, but Dustin eventually glimpsed what looked like a tiny room with a boy staring directly at them. It wasn’t a place he had ever seen before.

Ben tapped his finger on the boy. “What’s that around his neck?”

“I don’t know. A necklace, maybe?”, Will said.

Lucas shook his head. “No, more like a collar.”

Ben took off his watch, folded it between his hands and transformed it into a flat, metal collar. “Did it look like this?”

At the sight of the thing, El inhaled sharply, her brow furrowed and she looked about ready to throw it into the woods behind them.

Will nodded. “Yeah, exactly like that.”

“This is ASHA”, Lucas said, taking the sketch pad from Mike. “My cell looked kind of like this, just a bit emptier.”

“And they made us wear these”, Ben said. “With the collars they could nullify our powers or shock us during training if we didn’t use them the way they wanted to.” He looked at it in disgust, then quickly changed it back to his watch.

“Maybe it was a vision of your escape then”, Will said, taking the drawing back. “Maybe I was looking for the exit.”

“Yes”, El said. “Nobody would ever want to go back there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me forever to write and it's still kinda shit, I'm sorry about that.


	7. Chapter 7

With everything cleared out, the cell seemed much bigger already. It was hard to think of it as anything else, when there were bars in front of the window and the door had hatches for nurses to check on the patients inside. Dustin didn’t really mind either, but he could understand why Lucas and El weren’t thrilled to move into one of these instead of sleeping in the kitchen. Well that, and the fact neither of them wanted to stay here in the first place. With every passing day they were getting more antsy.  

Mikey pushed against the bars of the window. “Bev will get rid of these, if you want.”

“And I can get you whatever you want”, Ben said. “With your help I could probably furnish this with just a couple of peas.”

Dustin tried to ignore the dark feeling bubbling in the pit of his stomach. If he really wanted, Ben could create his own city out of nothing but a few pebbles and some garbage. He swallowed his jealousy and smiled back at him. “A bed would be great.”

Ben looked a little disappointed by the request.

“Give him a few days and he’ll start asking for a jacuzzi”, Mikey said. He laughed a little. “Ben will give you anything you ask for if he can, so keep it reasonable, yeah?”

“Richie isn’t allowed to ask me anymore”, Ben said in a small voice.

“Because you helped him fill all our rooms with red balloons so he could serenade us with that awful Nena song.”

“He said it was your anniversary.”

“Richie says a lot of things. I doubt even half of them are true. ”

“How did you guys meet?” It was hard to picture them as a smaller group, although they must’ve started out kind of like them with everyone coming together eventually. With every new member of their group the dynamic had changed a little until it eventually had become what it was now and Dustin thought it was now exactly how it was meant to be. Maybe that was why the others wanted to leave so much, maybe they didn’t want their group to change again.

“If you want to believe Richie, he saved Stan and Bill at a gas station. Stan says he was just annoying and lonely enough for them to take pity on him. Then I joined them”, Mike said, but was interrupted by a stifled laugh from Ben. He rolled his eyes and corrected himself: “Then I tried to rob Richie and we got in a fight and when they found out I was a Super too, they let me tag along. Happy, Ben?”

Ben nodded, still muffling his laughter. There was a story Dustin needed to hear in more detail at some point.

“Then we helped Ben and Bev escape ASHA and Eddie was the last one to join. Richie just showed up with him here almost a year ago and he had nowhere to go so he stayed.”

“How did your group get together?”, Ben asked.

 

_Dustin grumbled all the way out to the cellar. It was starting to get dark and he really didn’t understand why his mother needed the hedge clippers right now. Surely, the overgrown hedge could wait till tomorrow, but no… what if the neighbours saw? Dustin didn’t bother pointing out that the neighbours had already seen. It didn’t matter with the weird mood she was in again. The news about his father getting married to a younger woman who apparently ran a successful little beauty salon, had really gotten to her. Honestly, he didn’t understand why she even cared. The last time he’d seen his father he’d been three years old and he barely remembered it, and his mother had never once mentioned she’d wanted him to be part of their lives._

_Well, it didn’t matter. She wanted the hedge clippers at almost 10pm, and she was going to get them. He threw the doors open, turned the flashlight on and started to descend. Something scurried around down there, rats most likely. They should send Mews down there and take care of them, another one of those things he wouldn’t dare say to his mother unless he wanted her to have a heart attack._

_It turned out not to be rats. Dustin blinked at the two boys in his cellar, not even noticing he was shining his flashlight directly into their eyes._

_“Could you maybe lower that?”, the taller one asked._

_“What?” He looked down at the light in his hands and hastily lowered it, offering a small smile. “What are you doing down here? Who are you?”_

_“We don’t want any trouble. We’ll leave, okay? No need to call the cops or something.”_

_“Cops?” Dustin looked around the small, dark room. There wasn’t really anything down here. Some tools they rarely or never used, his aunt’s gross pickled vegetables and eggs that she gave them every time she came over and they didn’t have the heart to throw out, dried out paint buckets. “There isn’t anything worth stealing in here. If you want the jars, you can have them.”_

_To his surprise the shorter one eagerly grabbed a few of them and shoved them into his bag. His aunt would’ve cried tears of joy at the enthusiasm, Dustin scrunched up his face instead. How could anyone eat that stuff voluntarily._

_“Thanks”, the boy muttered as he zipped his bag._

_“What are you doing in my cellar?”, Dustin asked again. He doubted they’d come for the pickled eggs._

_“We… uh… we got…” The taller boy didn’t get to finish his lie as the bag slipped through his friend’s fingers, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and his knees buckled. Before he could fall both Dustin and the other boy had grabbed him and were laying him down gently._

_“Holy shit!” As far as Dustin knew people didn’t just collapse like that for no reason and the boy was already short, pale and thin. “I’m calling the ambulance!_

_He didn’t even make it more than two steps away from them, when the other boy grabbed him and pulled him back. “Don’t! He is fine.”_

_“Dude, he is not fine! Look at him!”_

_Except for the rapid movement of his eyes behind closed lids, he looked totally dead. He did not look fine. The grip on his arm didn’t loosen though, keeping Dustin in place. The boy looked more terrified at the idea of him calling for an ambulance than whatever was happening to his friend. Up until now Dustin had assumed they’d broken into the cellar to steal some of their worthless junk, but now he noticed their hastily packed bags and the sleeping bags. They had been sleeping down here, and considering he and his mom never went down here, they could’ve been here for a while already._

_“He just… he’s having an episode, but he’ll be fine. He doesn’t need a doctor”, the boy explained calmly. “I’m Mike, this is Will. Please don’t tell anyone you saw us down here.”_

_Two boys on the run from authorities… Dustin eyed them suspiciously, whatever they did, he thought he was safe. Neither of them looked like they could be of any danger to him. One of them was currently dying on the floor of his cellar for fucks sake!_

_“Now I really think I should tell someone. You’re not making a very good first impression.” But he didn’t move. His mom would have a fit if she found out about this and get the local sheriff to pick them up immediately, but Dustin was intrigued. He wanted to know what they were running from and why, he wanted to know about Will’s episode… Nothing interesting ever happened here, okay? At least not to him. His life consisted of school and his mom and his love for comic books and movies, and the secret wish that he could be like the heroes in them. It wasn’t fair that superpowers were real and he didn’t get one. He knew he wasn’t supposed to want one, Supers weren’t to be trusted and dangerous and the government did anything they could to contain them and keep civilians safe._

_Mike stared back at him for a long time, then he let go of him and knelt next to Will. “But you’re not going to, are you?”_

_How was he so sure about that? He could do it, if he wanted to! They were completely at his mercy and if it pleased him, he would turn them over._

_Mike snorted, but tried to cover it up with a cough. What a lame move._

_“What’s so funny?”, Dustin asked._

_“Nothing. Thank you…” He paused._

_“Dustin.”_

_“Thank you, Dustin. We’ll be out of your hair in no time. I promise.”_

_He was about to figure out a good way to ask them to stay without sounding pathetic, when Will started to stir. Mike helped him sit up, keeping an arm around his shoulders to steady him. Will’s eyes roamed aimlessly through the dark room until they landed on Mike’s face, only then did he relax, resting his head against Mike’s shoulder._

_“You okay”, Mike whispered._

_Will nodded._

_“Good. You really scared Dustin over here.”_

_Will immediately sat up straighter and stared at him as if he just saw him for the first time. His cheeks turned a faint pink, giving him a somewhat healthier look._

_“I wasn’t scared”, Dustin said. “If someone faints, calling for a doctor is the normal thing to do.”_

“Kind of like that.” Dustin smiled at the memory of finding the two boys in his cellar. That felt like a lifetime ago now. “I found Mike and Will hiding in our cellar, shortly after that ASHA showed up and I had to leave with them. We met Max, when we crashed in a warehouse she already lived in.” And then Max just decided she was going to tag along without asking, Mike was the only one who complained about it, but soon realized they really needed her. “And El and Lucas we picked up on the night of the breakout. Will had had a lot of visions about them, so he lead us to the facility, we waited for two days and then we convinced them to join us.”

Convincing Lucas had been difficult, but as soon as El had decided she believed and trusted Will, Lucas had given in. He’d been very protective of El back then. He still was, but he didn’t play her guard dog anymore. But maybe the main reason he’d agreed to stay with them had been Max. It had taken him all but five days to fall head over heels for her.

“Any tips on how to do that?”, Mikey asked.

They’d been here for a couple of days now and it had become clear to their new friends that El and Lucas were the ones who wanted to leave the most. Although Will was surprisingly vocal about it too. Dustin didn’t know if they did it for Richie’s sake or if they genuinely wanted all of them to stay, but Richie’s friends had been nothing but nice to them and immediately started to make room for them at the asylum.

Dustin sighed. “It’s different now. It’s not that they don’t like you.”

Part of him could understand them. Whenever they stayed somewhere for longer than a week, ASHA found them, but he loved the asylum and he was tired of the constant moving around. Was it so bad of him to want to try?

“Maybe if we make them all amazing rooms”, Ben mused. “Let’s get this one furnished, yeah?”

“Interior designer Ben has spoken”, Dustin joked.

Mikey pushed them out of the door. “There’s some stuff lying around over there. Ben could turn them into what you need.”

* * *

 

His feet dangled freely in the air as he watched his brother struggle to climb the tree. Mike definitely wasn’t the athletic twin.

“I see you finally made it”, he said, when Mike sat on a lower branch, clinging to the trunk of the tree.

“I’d like to see you climb this monster.”

Richie snorted. “I could easily.” But he liked flying too much to actually try.

“If you turned into a squirrel maybe.”

Richie shrugged. Maybe he’d have more difficulties if he were to do it in his own body, but he’d still be better at it than Mike. He leaned his back against the trunk and tried to find a position that he could relax in without falling out of the tree. Whoever said sitting in trees was comfortable, had probably never tried to sit in one for more than a few minutes.

It was weird to spend so much time in his own body. He really liked the Jess face. Jess had started to babysit him when he was five years old and for a long time Richie had been convinced she was the prettiest girl in the world. She was also the nicest person he’d known as a child until she moved away three years later and his parents decided he was old enough now to not need a babysitter anymore. When he took Jess’s face, he felt like that small boy again, felt her scooping him up in her arms after he fell and scraped his knee. And she still was one of the most attractive people Richie had ever met. He liked looking hot.

When he wasn’t Jess, he switched between his other faces, imitating his friends to rile them up or other people to make them laugh. Sometimes he liked just being an animal. He couldn’t talk then, but with the inability to talk came peace, at least then he didn’t feel like he had to fill every small silence with his commentary. Although all of this tapped his energy – being someone else was draining – being himself all the time and not using his power was even more exhausting. It was like his brain had saved all the nasty things ever said to him and played them on loop. He didn’t have the same problem when he wore someone else’s face. Then nobody else could see all his short-comings.

But with Mike here, it was different. He liked how similar they looked, it was probably one of the only things they had in common. Nobody could deny they were brothers, when they looked at them now.

“I don’t know how to make them stay”, Mike said. He nudged Richie’s foot that was dangling next to his head and Richie lightly kicked him in the shoulder.

As much as he wanted to like Mike’s friends, it was hard when they were so dead-set on ripping them apart. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He couldn’t just let Mike leave with them and trust that fate would bring them back together at some point, but he couldn’t just leave all his friends. They were the first true family he’d ever had.

“I’ll tie myself to Lucas. I think I still have some handcuffs somewhere”, he said, winking at Mike.

“I’m serious. I don’t know what to do.”

_Neither do I. Just stay._ It was pathetic how much he needed Mike by his side, he knew that. He’d never say it of course. Mike didn’t owe him anything, it wasn’t his fault that their parents had given him away, and Richie knew how annoying he was, who wanted to be actually related to that? He probably preferred his adopted family. It wasn’t like they were real brothers just because they shared some DNA.

“Not real brothers”, Mike repeated. “Richie, you’re my twin! How can it get any realer than that?”

He froze and almost lost his balance. Shit! Did he say that out loud? He was pretty sure he hadn’t, which could only mean Mike was in his head. He’d heard everything. It wasn’t just the embarrassing needy thoughts about Mike, it was the memories of Jess, and the nagging of his mother _(“Your hair is too long, you could at least brush it.”, “We should’ve named you Roger to go with those giant teeth of yours.”, “How have you outgrown your new jeans already? Money doesn’t grow on trees, Richard.”)_. It was all the stuff he hadn’t shared with anyone before and now Mike knew.

“What the fuck! You can’t just read my mind whenever it pleases you!”

He watched as the smile fell from Mike’s lips and his face paled, making his freckles more visible. Had his mother felt the same kind of satisfaction? Was that why she had taken every opportunity to bring him down? Richie hated the pleasure it gave him to see Mike’s hurt expression. _I did that,_ he thought almost proudly.

“Some things are fucking private! Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. If I wanted you to hear the shit that’s going on, I would fucking say it!”

With the words spilling from his mouth harsh and fast, Richie grabbed the branch over his head as he leaned into Mike’s space.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t…”

“You said you don’t do that!” He didn’t know what he hated more, the way his voice broke or the way Mike flinched. They’d talked about it just the other day, how most of his friends didn’t like it when Mike used his powers on them and how he respected their wishes. Why was Richie different? “How long have you been listening to me?”

Mike didn’t answer. He’d heard it all.

“Maybe you can spy on your friends’ thoughts”, Richie spat, “to figure out how to stay. Whatever… I d-…”

He was cut off by the loud snapping sound above him. Frantically he tried to grab a hold somewhere, but his fingernails only scraped painfully over the bark as he fell. The glasses slipped from his face, turning everything into a big blur and making it impossible for him to see the ground zooming towards him.  

“Richie!”

He liked to think of himself as quite a fast thinker, but the thought to transform himself into a bird or a cat only reached him only seconds before he hit the ground. They hadn’t been up very far, so he blamed it on that. With the wind knocked out of him, it took him a moment to register the pain in his head and his knee.

“Fuck! Richie!”

He fumbled around for his glasses, but didn’t find them. Mike was a blurry blob as he jumped from a much lower branch and knelt next to him. “Are you okay?”, he asked.

Richie liked the worry in his voice. His friends usually just shouted at him when he hurt himself, sometimes when he was lucky and it absolutely wasn’t his own fault, Eddie would use that soft voice with him to make sure he was okay after he’d fixed him up, but that only happened on rare occasions when none of the others were around.

“Richie? Can you hear me?”

He groaned as the pain in his head only increased when Mike shook him. “Loud and clear, asshole.” He fumbled around again. “Where are my glasses?”

“They’re broken”, Mike said, but a moment later he placed them on Richie’s face anyway. The cracks were annoying and would make his headache worse, but at least the blurriness was gone for now.

“Great.” He sat up slowly, testing if the pain increased or stayed more or less the same. Mike tried helping him up, but Richie pushed his hands away.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry”, Mike said. “It’s just… You’re really hard to read and I just wanted to know what was going on. I shouldn’t have done that, I’m sorry.”

Hard to read… what a bunch of crap. And even if that was true, then he was hard to read on purpose. It wasn’t an invite to get into his head and spy on his thoughts.

“Whatever”, he scoffed. “I’ll just look at your wang and tell everyone how small it is.”

“W-what?”

Ignoring the pain in his knee, Richie pushed himself up, slung an arm around Mike and leaned on him to keep his balance. “If you want to invade my privacy with your dumb powers, I’ll just have to do the same thing to you, don’t I?”

Halfway through his sentence, he changed his face to Mike’s and started to undo his pants. Mike quickly grabbed his hand to stop him.

“Stop!”

“What? Scared you’re the smaller twin. You probably are, you’re shorter than me by a whole inch.”

“I don’t care”, Mike hissed. “Just stop it!”

“It’s only fair, isn’t it?” And it was better than to keep fighting with him. Especially now that he needed Mike to get back to the others.

“Oh my God! It’s weird, Richie! We’re alone in the woods. Just don’t.”

Well, he did have a point there, but he still thought he should get his revenge. “Fine, I didn’t think you’d want witnesses, but that’s a good point. I’ll whip it out when everyone’s around.”

“I will kill you! That’s not what I meant!”

“You’re so dramatic. I’ve streaked in Bill’s body before and he wasn’t such a baby about it.”

When Richie didn’t make any more attempts to unzip his pants, Mike started leading him back to the asylum. They walked at a slow pace, each step making the pain in his knee flare up.

“Maybe it’s better you stay here and I get Eddie?”, Mike suggested, when the pain got particularly bad and Richie let out a small hiss.

“No. He’s Nurse Eddie, not EMT Eddie. Since when do nurses come to the patient.”

“If he’s healing you, shouldn’t he be the doctor?”

Richie shifted, so he was putting more of his weight on Mike. “Maybe, but nurses are hotter, so… They are the ones who give you sponge bathes.”

Mike groaned and stopped. His other arm came around Richie’s waist to get a better grip on him and hold him upright. “I’m reaching out to him right now. And I’m telling him about the sponge bath.”

* * *

 

They were sprawled out in the grass with the early October sun warming their skin. Bill was half asleep with his head resting on Stan’s stomach and Bev pressed into his side, and he’d probably be snoring already if it weren’t for his friends being so loud.

“You’ve got to hold on tight”, Will said to Eddie, who was about to climb onto Max’s back. That girl was surprisingly strong. She’d tried carrying all of them, Eddie being the last one as he’d refused to be carried by her just because he was the shortest. But after she’d successfully run a couple of rounds around the asylum with all of them – Bill thought he might’ve gotten whiplash from it, Mike had actually puked – Eddie didn’t have an argument anymore. “I slipped off once and it’s not fun.”

Eddie, who’d been unsure about this from the start, turned sickly white. “Okay”, he squeaked. But the fire returned to his eyes immediately, when Bev and Bill started laughing at him. “Shut up!”

Max rolled her eyes. “Can we just get on with it?” She didn’t wait for Eddie to get ready, just grabbed his arms, slung them around her neck and flung him onto her back in the process, and then they were gone.

They could hear Eddie’s distorted screaming though and it set them all off again.

Not far from them Lucas and El were training, which meant they were fighting and only barely managed not to kill each other. It looked impressive, and Bill didn’t understand why they even needed to train, but Will had told them, they did it every day. They stopped, when they heard Eddie’s screams.

“What the hell was that?”, Lucas asked.

“Eddie’s zooming for the first time”, Will called back.

And then they were back. As soon as Max let go of him, Eddie collapsed on the ground next to Ben. He was panting and shaking and looked overall miserable.

“It’s fun, right?”, Dustin asked.

“You are weird”, Eddie muttered, still very pale. “Maybe Bev can throw you around a bit, see if that is fun too.”

Dustin considered it for a second, then shrugged. “Yeah, why not.”  

Bev could carry all of them easily, if she was careful she could also throw them – she once launched Richie into the middle of a lake they were swimming in. It had taken him twenty minutes to get back to the shore – but most likely that would result in a few broken bones. Part of Bill still wanted to try though. It probably wouldn’t kill him, and for anything else they had Eddie.

Eddie shook his head. “You’re insane! You need constant supervision.”

“You say that about Richie too”, Stan said. “And where is he now, huh?”

“Just because I say he needs supervision, doesn’t mean it has to…”, he trailed off and stared at the woods to their right.

“What?”

Eddie sighed. “It’s Mike. Richie got hurt.”

He shakily got to his feet and wandered off, seemingly following the voice in his head to where his patient was. Bill didn’t worry. If it was serious, Eddie would’ve ran to be by Richie’s side and heal him. Besides, Richie got hurt every other day. At least before Eddie had joined him, his stupidity usually put him out of action for a few days, now Eddie just healed him and he went on with his moronic ideas.

Not long after Eddie had disappeared between the trees, Bill felt the familiar sensation of his guts turning to lead, his blood running cold. He bolted to his feet. Suddenly, his heart was racing. _Go! Go! Go_! There was no slow build today, the dread just hit him like a bullet and that meant only one thing: Whatever danger was approaching, it was coming fast.

“Bill?”

He saw the confusion on the faces of their new friends, the others looked alarmed, albeit a bit unbelieving. They’d thought about this happening, but after so much time spent here in peace and quiet, it was hard to believe the time had finally come for them to get out.

“We have to go, don’t we?”, Ben asked.

He nodded. “And fast. Someone t-t-tell Richie, Michael and E-e-e-e-eddie.”

“Tell them what?”, Max asked.

“Somebody is c-coming. And it’s n-n-n-n-not good.”

“ASHA?”, El asked in a small voice.

“Yeah, probably.”

Max turned into a blur as she gained speed on her way to the woods, then disappeared completely. Ben, Mike and Stan were already heading for the asylum to grab the stuff they couldn’t leave behind. Bev tugged on his hand, reminding him of their role. Ages ago, when they’d moved into the asylum, they’d come up with an emergency plan for this exact situation, Bill was surprised they all still remembered what to do.

“We need to get the cars”, she said, then turned to Lucas, El, Will and Dustin who stood around unsure what to do. “Who knows how to drive?”

“Why don’t we just fight?”, Dustin asked. “There’s thirteen of us!”

“Because they found us already? We can’t stay here now even if we did win a fight”, Bev said. “Now, who can drive?”

She grabbed Dustin as soon as he raised his hand and pulled him along. It was hard to keep calm, when his body was telling him to run and get as far away as possible. He had to remind himself that this was his power and not real, that he had to keep a clear head.

“If they come, hold them off”, he said as he started to follow Bev and Dustin, walking backwards. “But d-don’t des-s-stroy the r-road!”

Lucas rolled his eyes at him. “We’re not idiots!”

Bill rolled his eyes right back at him, as if they had time for this right now. Knowing Lucas and El were best suited to buy them some time, he turned to Will. “We need an-n-n-nother driver. Come on.”

Will stared blankly, but Bill figured he’d snap out of it soon enough and follow them, he just didn’t have the time to wait for that to happen as he hurried after Bev and Dustin.

When he rounded the corner, Bev had already straddled her bike and Dustin was putting the bus into drive. His first instinct was to get to his truck, but then he remembered how much of a bitch Richie’s van could be and how he didn’t even know if Will could drive stick. The only reason Bill knew, was Richie’s constant boasting about being a better driver because he drove stick and not automatic. To Bill’s dismay, Richie really was the better driver even after he’d learned how to drive stick, but like hell would he ever admit that.

“Take the truck”, he shouted over his shoulder, heading for the van himself. “The keys are under the sun visor.”

Finding the keys to the van wasn’t quite as easy. They’d agreed to keep them in the cars for this exact reason, but Richie also kept a lot of other crap in here and it felt like hours until Bill located the keys in the glove compartment under some empty cigarette packs and a well-read issue of the People magazine.

He struggled with getting the key in the ignition with how bad his hands were shaking, every fibre of his body still screaming at him to get the hell out of here. He took a deep breath, and as he exhaled the key slid in easily. If he was to keep all of his friends safe, he needed to calm down.

Just as he’d put the van in reverse, the earth rumbled underneath him. The sound of screeching tires and yelling came from the other side of the building. They were here. Stepping on the gas, he flattened a few of Mike’s plants as he turned the van around. Thankfully, Mike wouldn’t get a chance to see his hard labour destroyed like that.  

The sight in front of the building made his power flare up again, letting his mind go completely blank with fear for a second. He’d expected two, maybe three cars, but there were at least seven snaking up the windy road, grim-looking people were leaning out of the windows, pointing guns at his friends. Lucas was doing his best to shield them from the bullets by raising walls of dirt. Another car was already on its side, blocking the road, which Bill assumed was El’s work.

The van hadn’t even stopped completely, when Bill jumped out, throwing both of his arms up and raising a shield between the ASHA agents and his friends. It allowed Mike, Stan and Ben to run from the asylum towards the cars and throw the bags in.

“Need some help?”

Bill kept his gaze on the agents, but nodded in response to Dustin’s question. It wasn’t like he absolutely needed the boost, but with every bullet that bounced off his shield, he felt it weaken and there were a lot of bullets. Building it up and strengthening his shield wasn’t impossible, but he already felt all that pent-up energy that his power had created, slip away from him and into the invisible barrier he’d put up. As soon as Dustin grabbed his shoulder, he felt like he had more control over the shield and how it was tapping his energy. He usually gave it his all, until he felt like he was everywhere around his friends, enveloping them in a big hug with his mind. Now he still felt he was protecting them, but could also control the energy flow better so he wouldn’t run dry as fast.  

When he heard someone running and Eddie cursing behind him – words strung together in a too fast rush to understand anything except the occasional “Fuck” – Bill felt himself relax a bit. He’d worried that even with Max’s speed, they wouldn’t make it back in time and they’d be forced to leave Eddie, Richie and Michael to hide in the woods.

“We’ve got to clear the road”, Max said. Bill caught glimpses of her zooming from one car to the next, until she reached the bus and climbed behind the wheel. “Just push all those cars out of the way, El!”

The shorter girl smirked at her friend, turned back to the ASHA agents and with a jerk of her head, she sent the closest car flying into a nearby tree. Bill was glad to see Mike by her side as soon as she stepped out of his shield to take the bullets for her.

Keeping his shield up was getting harder now, even with Dustin’s help. The agents were concentrating their firepower on Bill now, instead of shooting at everyone and this made his shield wear down quicker and made it harder to keep up with the repairs. It seemed like ASHA had enough ammunition to shoot up a whole city.  

“Get in the c-cars!”, he bellowed. “I can’t keep this up much luh-luh-longer.”

“You’re doing great.” Stan’s voice came softly from behind him as he passed by. Bill could almost feel it, when he slipped out of the shield and left his protection. The images of the other night, of Stan bleeding in Ben’s arms, how he’d been convinced he’d lost Stan, jumped to the front of his mind. It felt like someone had punched him in the throat. He took quick, deep breaths but didn’t feel like the air actually reached his lungs, and everything was spinning. Dustin’s face next to him was a blur as he spun around, trying to figure out where Stan had gone.

There was a sudden burning sensation just underneath his eye and right cheek, followed by something warm trickle down his face.

“Shit!” Dustin’s voice seemed far away, although he was right in front of him. His eyes were the size of tea cups as he stared at him.

The pain in his cheek faded to a dull throbbing, but he felt his skin slick with blood, more and more spilling from the wound. The collar of his shirt was soaked quickly and started to cling to his skin and when his curious fingers tried to grasp what had happened, his hand came back slick with blood.

“Holy shit!”, Dustin repeated. “Fuck! We need to get you to Eddie now!”

Bill fought against his grip as he tried to drag him back towards the van. He was fine. Probably. He didn’t need Eddie, he needed to find Stan and get him in the car with him. Another bullet missed Dustin’s head by less than an inch, and the boys dropped to their knees, but as soon as Dustin’s hands fell away from him to check himself for any injuries, Bill took off towards the asylum, always keeping low and hoping not to get hit by another bullet.

He felt a weight fall off his shoulders, when he heard the familiar crackle of Stan’s lightning. The white-blue bolt struck the garbage strewn around the entrance of the asylum, which caught on fire immediately. With the old, dry leaves the wind had blown inside that they’d never cleaned out, it was no surprise to Bill how fast the fire spread.

“Bill!” He whipped around just in time to see Mike run towards him and throw his arms around his shoulders. His whole body jolted as a bullet hit him in the back, Mike hissed in pain, but never slowed down and kept pushing Bill backwards. “What happened to you? You look like Carrie on prom night! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, fine!” He tried struggling again, but Mike was much stronger than Dustin and seemed to have a plan. Over the top of Mike’s head, he saw Stan and Ben run for the minibus under the protection of Lucas’s earth shields. He was running to safety, running away from him.

“Bill, stop!”, Mike said, giving him a stronger push. “You’ll get us shot again!”

His and Stan’s eyes locked just as Stan had climbed inside the bus and peered outside for anyone else needing to get in. He was smiling proudly at the fire that was slowly consuming their old home, but the smile was replaced by a grimace of terror, when he saw Bill. Did he really look that bad? Then Max stepped on the gas and the bus was the first car to disappear behind the trees, taking Stan with him.

He stopped struggling then and turned around. Mike had been pushing him towards his own truck, where Will was still sitting behind the wheel, looking small and lost, but as soon as Bill and Mike had squeezed onto the front bench with him, the truck was speeding down the road. They grazed one of the agents as they did and Bill wasn’t sure if that was by accident or not. There was no remorse on Will’s face.

The engine of Bev’s bike revved as she passed them, El clinging to her back like a monkey. Bill watched with a heavy heart as they overtook the bus as well, sped up even more and disappeared in the distance. He’d forgotten this part about their emergency plan and wished they could just follow the bus, follow Stan.

“Where are they going?”, Will asked, his voice weirdly high-pitched. He was watching the van in the rear-view mirror, the van that was now becoming smaller and smaller as it drove off in the opposite direction.

“We’re splitting up”, Mike said. “It’s fine.”

It didn’t feel fine. This was the first time in three years that he and Stan had been apart without knowing when they’d see each other again. _Soon,_ he tried telling himself, _you’ll see him soon. Him and Richie and Bev and Ben and Eddie._ But what if something happened? What if ASHA found them again and he wasn’t there to help? They wouldn’t show up at the meeting spot and he’d never know what happened to them.

“No!” Will shook his head, turning the wheel as he did and almost driving off the road. “Mike and Dustin are in the van!”

Bill quickly grabbed the wheel to keep it steady. There were even a few streaks of blood down his left arm. He was probably messing up the seats and Stan would never shut up about the stains. “It’s just for a b-b-bit.”

“That’s not…” He shook his head again. For a few moments he looked like he was about to cry, and then it was like someone had flicked a switch and his expression neutralized, although his hands were still gripping the wheel so hard his knuckles turned white.

Bill glanced at Mike out of the corner of his eye, just to be sure he’d seen it too. Mike gave a short shrug. It was probably better not to question it, what with Will almost driving off the road a moment ago.

“I’ll just turn left here then”, Will said, when they came to a crossing. The bus in front of them kept going straight.

Bill swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally here! I'm sorry it took me so long to update


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan is worried about Bill, Lucas and Ben try to distract him with some training, and Lucas and Max share a moment

The image of Bill, his face and torso covered in blood, being carried to his truck by Mike, had burned itself into Stan’s mind. The others had been quick to assure him, that Bill was fine, that it probably looked worse than it was, but none of them had been close enough to be sure. What if he was bleeding out right now? What could Mike do to help him? The guy hadn’t bled once in his life, what did he know about first-aid?

Ben’s hand was warm as he grabbed Stan’s, snapped him out of his thoughts and brought him back to the stuffy bus. Max and Lucas were in the front seat, speaking in hushed voices, while Stan had opted for the bench in the back, where he’d been staring at Bill’s truck until it had taken a turn and disappeared. Ben carefully uncurled Stan’s fingers, exposing the red crescents his nails had left on his palms.

“He’s fine, Stan”, he said. “They all are.”

How could he know that? How could he be so sure of that? Stan knew Ben was just being hopeful, but how could he trust his own words so easily? What if some of those ASHA agents had followed them? Stan looked out at the road, almost expecting a person to pop out of the window of the car behind them and start shooting at them.

“They’re not that easy to get rid of.” Ben shifted in his seat in front of Stan and gave him a lopsided smile. “We did more damage to ASHA than the other way around.”

“Not enough”, Stan muttered. They would be back. If anything, they had only infuriated ASHA and made themselves a bigger target.

Ben sighed. He’d never liked the violence they were forced to use when facing ASHA, and usually Stan was on his side, but he was starting to change his mind. All his life he’d been scared of using his powers, scared of hurting someone with them, but maybe it was worth hurting someone if it meant his friends were safe. “I just wish, they’d leave us alone”, Ben said.

There was humourless laughter coming from the front. “I’m sorry”, Max said. “But it’s ASHA. Fat chance of that ever happening.”

He and Ben moved to seats closer to the front, not feeling like shouting through the small bus.

“They won’t stop until we’re dead”, Lucas said. “Dead, or one of their little lab rats again.”

Stan had never been in an ASHA facility, but he’d gotten close once. Bill used to call Stan’s parents, the best and most supportive parents in the world, and he had agreed, until one day they weren’t anymore. He’d been so nervous to tell them about his powers, knowing with how much hate they talked about other Supers, but he’d figured it would be different if it was him. They had always accepted him just the way he was, had welcomed Bill with open arms, never nagged him for his neurotic behaviour. They’d loved him like a parent should love their child, unconditionally.

Until Stan had told them about the lightning cursing through him at all times, his hand squeezing Bill’s under the table. His mother had always been an open book and Stan could see the different emotions reflect on her face. Surprise, disbelief, fear, anger, disgust…

_“You’ve let the sins grab a hold of you, Stanley. There’s nothing your mother and I can do to help you now.”_

As if he’d decided to be like this, as if powers weren’t hereditary and somewhere in their family line there’d been another Super. Probably one that’d been lucky enough to have a power that was easier to hide.

Bill had pulled him out of the house, when his mother had grabbed for the phone, but Stan had still heard her hushed voice: _“Yes. There’s one of them here in Derry. You need to send someone from the Agency for Super Human Affairs right away. Hurry!”_

That had been three years ago, but thinking about it hadn’t gotten any easier since then. He still missed them so much, despite how awful they’d been.

“Are those really our only options?”, Ben asked, snapping Stan out of his thoughts once again. “Kill them or get killed?”

“Killing them isn’t even an option”, Max said. “This isn’t a movie, where you kill the bad guy and you get to live in peace. Unless you’re willing to kill anyone, who isn’t a Super.” 

Had they done that before, killed someone? Stan didn’t think he could, not on purpose. Sometimes he still woke up, drenched in sweat and thrashing, because the old man with his dead eyes haunted his sleep. He hadn’t meant to hurt him, he’d just wanted the man to let go of Bill. He hadn’t meant to use his power at all, but the lightning had shot from his outstretched hand anyway and hit him square in the chest. He’d been dead before he’d hit the floor.

“So we’ll just keep running forever”, Lucas huffed. He glared at the world flying past the window.

“We could still try to get out of here”, Max said. “I heard they are a lot more accepting of Supers in Sweden.”

“I thought it was Canada”, Ben said.

Stan shook his head. “I heard it was Mexico.”

There were always rumours that life was better somewhere else, but it was just that: a rumour. Besides, they’d never make it across the border or onto a plane. ASHA was everywhere.

“And before that it was Australia, then it was Japan. The other day I heard China.” Lucas sighed, sinking deeper into his seat. “It’s the same everywhere else. Hating Supers is universal.”

* * *

 

Stan wasn’t sure that the port was a good place to stay, but they needed a break and it was only for a couple of hours. He sat with his legs dangling over the pier and watched the gulls dive at the dark ocean waves.

“I’m coming with you!”

“No, I’m faster alone. You know, I can’t carry you.”

Max and Lucas had been discussing the supply run for about half an hour now. Ben had had no problem turning some of the murky water into gas for the bus, but they still needed food. The arguing reminded Stan of Bill; he’d never let Stan go on his own either. Why had he run for the bus and not the truck? It was his fault they were separated now. On every other occasion Stan would’ve been fine with it. It wasn’t like he absolutely had to be by Bill’s side at all times, they weren’t that kind of couple, but with ASHA on their heels and Bill being hurt like that, he couldn’t think of any other place he needed to be.

“Okay”, Lucas said. “Just be careful, yeah?”

Max kissed him. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Bring a map, if you can”, Stan said, when they separated.

“I thought you said, you know where we’re going.”

He rolled his eyes. “I do. But it’s been over a year since we’ve been at the camp and I don’t have the route memorized.”

“Alright, then. You boys stay safe and don’t do anything stupid.” She waved at Ben and Stan and the next moment she was gone.

Lucas and Ben came to sit next to him on the pier. Except for the screaming of the sea gulls it was mostly quiet down here. The sounds of people working around here was faint and with the sun starting to set, Stan hoped they’d all be gone soon. ASHA had probably put out a warning about them, so he hoped nobody would see them down here.

“The camp”, Lucas said. “Why is that your safe spot? Seems kind of inconvenient. I mean, what if you were split up during the summer, when there’s a bunch of kids running around there?”

“It’s the one place we all know”, Ben said. “It’s where we met each other.”

“Well, except for Eddie”, Stan pointed out. They had shown him the place on a map before, but he was still glad Eddie was with Richie and didn’t have to find his way by himself.

“You don’t have anything like that?”, Ben asked.

Lucas shrugged. “We’ve never had to split up like this. And we have Mike. With Dustin’s help he turns into a long-distance walkie-talkie.”

If only Bill was with Michael, at least then he could find out if he was okay or not. Now his only option was to get to the camp as fast as possible and hope he’d see Bill there.

“Smart move burning down the asylum”, Lucas said. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

Stan looked at his hands. It had pained him to do it. The asylum had been their home for a long time, ideally, they would’ve lived there together for a lot longer, but now they would never return. It was probably better to have it all go up in flames than have ASHA agents go through their stuff. All of Bill’s drawings, Ben’s creations and Mike’s plants, all their laughter and love that had soaked into the walls, all the memories… it wasn’t for them. So yes, he’d rather see it all burn down than let ASHA taint it with their presence.

“I’m good at destroying things”, he said.

“That’s what I thought too.” Lucas tilted his head to let the setting sun shine on his face. “I didn’t know how to control this and whenever I got mad, the earth would split. I could create huge boulders or make people fall on their asses. And now I can do this.”

He stretched out his hand, palm up. Slowly the dirt from the pier started to float towards him, it looked like mini tornado as it swirled around. Lucas smiled as the dirt started to take on another shape, a girl. It was hard to identify, but Stan thought it looked a little like Max. Lucas closed his fist around it and threw the dirt over his shoulder.

“I’m not much of an artist, so I need Dustin’s help to make it look good. But my point is, just because you have all that power, doesn’t mean you can only use it to destroy things.”

“I thought it looked nice”, Ben offered. “You’re really good at using your powers. Those earth shields really saved us earlier.”

Lucas gave him a strained smile. “It’s what ASHA does to you, right? All they’re interested in is our powers and how they can use them for themselves, so they train you every day for hours. You know how it is.”

Ben nodded. “Yeah. ‘Thirteen, turn this into that’, ‘Thirteen, turn that into this’, ‘Thirteen, we’re not done with training until you hit the target with all five of these weapons’.”

“Thirteen, huh?” Lucas pulled the sleeve of his sweater up to reveal his own tattoo, 019. Ben did the same, 013. “How old were you when they got you?”

“I was 7. They grabbed me, when I was playing by the stream behind school.”

“My parents called ASHA, when I was 14”, Lucas said. His parents too. It was the first time Stan related to the other boy at all and on a topic he’d always felt no one else really understood.  No, his friends didn’t have the best parents either, but none of them had betrayed them like that.

“Makes you regret ever telling them anything, doesn’t it?”, he said.

Lucas shook his head. “Like I said, I couldn’t control it at all. I got mad at my little sister and…” He trailed off, swallowed. “She could’ve died. My parents thought ASHA would help, would help me control my powers and then I could go back to them. They’ve always known I was a Super.”

Stan wished, he could say the same thing about his parents, that his mom had grabbed the phone for his sake and not because she was afraid he’d strike them both down with his lightning.

“Anyway”, Lucas said, pulling his sleeve down again. “Your power. What’s it like? How do you use it?”

Stan shrugged. He’d never really thought about it. Calling on the lightning wasn’t hard, it was there when he wanted it and sometimes even when he didn’t. He felt the warm prickling of sparks dancing between his fingers, then quickly reeled it back in. Playing around with it was dangerous. He’d zapped his friends numerous times without meaning too. He’d also accidentally set fire to his bed once and fried Bill’s car radio.

“Where does it come from?”, Lucas asked. “For me, I have to feel the earth, I need a connection.” He got up and started pacing on the pier. “It’s best through my feet. It’s kind of like… like the earth becomes part of me.”

“Mine is in my hands”, Ben offered.

“I don’t know. It’s just kind of there”, Stan said. He felt the electricity in his whole body at all times, he’d just gotten so used to it by now. When his power had started to manifest it had been different; he’d been so jittery and stressed, trying hard to keep it all inside him where it couldn’t hurt anyone.

“You’re okay with your power”, Lucas said. “But you’re not good, because you’re holding back. You’re afraid.”

He was holding back so he wouldn’t hurt anybody. How was that a bad thing? And if being good with his powers meant he’d have to kill someone, he was content with being just okay. “I don’t care.”

Ben smiled. “It’s okay, Stan. I think Lucas is just trying to help you.”

“If you’re afraid of what you can do and you limit yourself like that, you won’t ever see the good things you can do with your power. Yeah, destroying things is easy, but everything beyond that requires skill”, Lucas explained.

What was it to him anyway? The past couple of days he’d done everything to avoid them, just spending time with his own friends and sitting in a corner with El scowling at them. Now suddenly he wanted to help? Maybe he was just bored and he’d picked Stan as his new hobby.

“Maybe you should try it”, Ben suggested.

“And how do I explain to Max that I roasted you both?” Stan shook his head. “Not going to happen.”

Lucas snorted a laugh, it sounded condescending in Stan’s ears. “I’ll keep Ben safe. Your lightning can’t do anything against my walls.”

Well, he trusted Bill’s shields and he’d seen Lucas dodge his lightning before. Earth was a pretty good opponent. And what if he was put in a position where he really needed to use his lightning to protect his friends at all costs and he couldn’t do it because he never learned how to use it properly? It couldn’t hurt to try, right?

“Come on, Stan”, Lucas said, smirking. “We haven’t got all day.” With a flick of his wrist, the concrete in front of him and Ben cracked and shot up, forming a wall around them.

Slowly Stan got to his feet. It was almost as if his power knew what was about to happen, the electricity cursing through his body spiking. It made his knees weak and his fingers tremble and his hair stand on end. He closed his eyes and let it take over, sparks immediately forming on his skin. He could feel the prickling not only on his hands, but his entire body. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was covered in a fine web of white-blue sparks, the crackling was a constant hum I his ears, almost as if it was singing to him. He’d imagined the lightning escaping him, hitting and destroying everything around him, but it was just clinging to him, hugging him.

Too mesmerized by the web of electricity dancing between his fingers, Stan didn’t notice the small projectile flying towards him until it was too late. It hit him square in the shoulder, or it would have, if it hadn’t been fried in the electric charge surrounding him.

“Just a test”, Lucas called, poking his head out from behind his wall.

“Does it hurt?”, Ben asked.

Stan wriggled his fingers and watched the sparks jump between them. “Not at all.”  

“Neat.” Lucas made a throwing gesture and a couple of small stones – or maybe it was chipped concrete – flew in the air and stayed there, floating. “Try to hit these. One at a time.”

Easy. He knew how to strike things with his lightning, it only took a small thrust of his arm and… The lightning shot forward from the palm of his hand like a serpent and engulfed all the stones at once. The blackened targets kept floating in front of him, taunting him.

“I said one at a time.”

Stan rolled his eyes, but tried it again. He fixed his gaze on the stone furthest to the right, willing his lightning to only hit that one, but as soon as it cracked through the air, Stan knew it was no good. The next few tries bore the same result. As soon as the lighting left him, he lost control. Yeah, he could still aim it in a vague direction, but that was it.

“Don’t push forward so hard”, Ben suggested. “And try using just a finger.”

So he was supposed to just point? But at this point Stan was getting frustrated, so he could either listen to Ben’s advice or try and fail a few more times with his method. What did he have to lose? He took a deep breath, reached out his hand while still holding onto the electricity, then pointed his finger at one of the stones and let the lightning run its course. It was much smaller than before and only hit the one stone Stan had aimed for, but it had also lost all its power and fizzled out quickly.

Ben beamed at him. “Just like that, yeah!”

“Next time just give it a bit more… bam”, Lucas said.

He was so smart, wasn’t he? How many years of training did he have? Obviously he would’ve struggled like this too in the beginning. Stan pursed his lips, and flicked his finger in the direction of the stone closest to Lucas. The lightning hit it with a loud crack, making Lucas jump back behind the wall.

Stan grinned. “Like that?”

Lucas let the targets drop. Stan had expected him to be mad, but when he stepped out from behind the wall, he was smiling.  “That’s a start.”

Figuring they were done with the little training session, Stan tried to reel in the electricity again, already missing the prickle on his skin as soon as it was gone. Maybe he should thank Lucas for showing him that his power wasn’t as dangerous as he’d always believed it to be, but he’d rather die than say that out loud.  

“There’s one more thing you should try”, Lucas said as he and Ben joined him again. “You say it all comes from inside you, but have you ever tried using the electricity around you?”

“No.” Why would he? His lightning was powerful on its own, the idea of fuelling it was scary. What if he couldn’t control it anymore? He barely had a good grip on it as it was.

Ben turned slowly, clearly looking for something. He pointed at one of the cranes that lifted the containers around the port. “Try that crane over there.”

Try what? Stan had no idea what they wanted him to do exactly. Was he supposed to feel the electricity just like he felt the tingling course through his body? He stared at the crane with narrowed eyes, willing something to happen, but nothing did.

Something lightly grazed his cheek and then Max was back, holding a grocery bag in front of her chest. “Why are we staring daggers at inanimate objects? What did I miss?”

“We’re helping Stan with his power”, Ben said.

“Cool.” She grabbed something from the bag and waved it in front of Stan’s face. “Got the map you were asking for.”

Glad for the distraction, he took it from her and went back to his seat on the pier. The others followed soon after, Lucas and Max already snacking on the stuff she had brought. Stan unfolded the map on the ground and let his fingers run over the lines until he found the lake he was looking for.

“Why couldn’t Ben just make us one?”, Max asked.

“My geography isn’t that good”, Ben said quietly. “I don’t know enough about maps to make an accurate one. It wasn’t too much of a bother, was it?”

Max waved him off. “I was just curious. Don’t worry.”

Her long hair tickled Stan’s cheek as she leaned over him to get a better look at the map. “That’s going to take us at least two days”, she said. “Assuming we won’t have ASHA creeps to deal with.”

“And we drive pretty much the whole time”, Lucas added.

“We’ll just take turns”, Stan said, folding the map up. “I’ll go first.”

It would be getting dark soon and Stan couldn’t imagine curling up on one of the seats and fall asleep without Bill by his side. He’d much rather drive all night so they could reach the camp as soon as possible and be reunited with the others. Anything, really, to keep his mind busy and stop thinking about the worst that could’ve happened to Bill.

* * *

 

With her head pillowed in Lucas’ lap, Max watched the cold moon, the only constant out there in the dark. After having slept in real beds, it was hard to go back to camping in their car. It was cramped with her and Lucas trying to get comfortable in the seat, limbs tangled together, but she doubted she’d be more comfortable with her own seat. At least now she wasn’t cold.

She wondered if Ben had fallen asleep, with the complete silence coming from the front of the bus, but probably not. Even in the asylum she’d rarely seen him sleep. Maybe he was just one of those people who ran on three hours of sleep and a lot of caffeine.

“Good idea”, she whispered. “With Stan.”

Lucas shifted a little. “What do you mean?”

“Training him to stop him from worrying about Bill.”

“Oh.” She turned her head so she could see his face, finding him looking at her with that stupid smile of his. “I hadn’t thought about that to be honest”, he admitted. “I just wanted to see what he can do.”

“Are you going to mentor him? Have him call you Master Lucas? Or would you prefer Master Luke?”

His fingers dug into her sides, making her squirm away. She almost fell off the seat, if he hadn’t grabbed her and pulled her back into him. “Don’t tease. I’m sleepy.”

“You love it, Stalker.”

He tightened his arms around her and rested his head on hers. “We’re sleeping now. Goodnight, Max.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

He shushed her, briefly putting a hand over her mouth. “Sleep. Don’t fight it. Sleep is good.”

She twisted around to kiss his cheek, then settled into him again. “You’re weird.”

“I’m sleepy.”

 

_“There you are.”_

_She looked over her shoulder although she’d recognize Lucas’ voice anywhere, and who else would be the first one to find her? As much as she liked having a group of friends, sometimes it got a bit much. Especially tonight where Mike and Dustin had decided to explain D &D to Lucas and El, and were practically falling over each other to help them come up with their characters. Max was surprised they’d managed to hold off for a good two months, Dustin had started pestering her about it on their third day as a group. _

_Lucas sat down next to her on the edge of the pool, dipped his hand into the freezing water and immediately pulled it out again. “Are you okay?”_

_“Peachy.”_

_She could feel his eyes on her, she could always feel it, but she’d stopped being annoyed by it. She’d figured, he’d stop eventually. He’d been locked up for three years and she just happened to be there. He might as well have imprinted on any of the guys, but as time went on, it wasn’t just staring and him following her around, trying to impress her. It was so easy to talk to Lucas, he just seemed to get her. Especially when it came to family stuff. Mike, Will and Dustin all loved their families and wanted to return to them at one point, El didn’t have a family, but Lucas understood what it was like to love and hate them at the same time. He understood her hesitation when faced with the question if she’d go back home if she could. On one hand her mother hadn’t done anything wrong, but she did marry that stupid Neil Hargrove guy and brought Billy into her life, and then she just stood by while Neil beat the shit out of Billy and Billy made her life hell in return._

_Lucas leaned back until he was lying on his back. “Do you think I missed the opportunity to tell them I’ve played D &D before?”_

_“What?”_

_She’d just watched Mike give him an hour-long introduction to the game and Lucas hadn’t even tried to stop him._

_Her shoulder bumped into his as she laid down next to him, but she didn’t move away. She liked how his touch made her skin tingle, her heart beat just that little bit faster. “Why didn’t you?”_

_“I’m wondering how long it’ll take them to figure it out”, he said. His voice was a little shaky, was that because of her? Or maybe it was the cold. She hoped it was her._

_“Not long if I tell them your secret.”_

_“I trust you to keep it.”_

_Max kept her eyes on the starry sky above, but didn’t fight the smile forming on her lips. If she just moved her hand a little bit, she could brush her fingers against his. If she did, would he hold her hand?_

_“Does that mean I’m your favourite?”, she asked._

_“I guess so”, he whispered back._

_She wasn’t prepared for how close they were, when she turned her head to look at him. So close his breath hit her lips and made them tingle with anticipation. But it was his eyes that made her breath hitch and her mind go blank for a second. Max was sure nobody had ever looked at her like that, looked at her, actually seen her and liked what they saw._

_“Do you…”, she started, her words barely audible. “Do you want to know who mine is?”_

_He didn’t say anything, but she saw the invitation to go on in his eyes. Of course, he wanted to know. When she’d asked the question, she’d been building up to a joke. She was going to say Will just to see how Lucas would react, but now she felt she couldn’t go through with it. For once she didn’t feel like running away from this moment, like she needed to push Lucas away. If possible, she wouldn’t mind staying out here with him all night._

_And yet she wasn’t able to say it. It was one word, one tiny little confession, but her mouth wasn’t working. How could it be so scary to admit to something, when he already had? When it was clear he felt the same way? She just couldn’t say it._

_So she kissed him instead. His lips were soft and still had the bitter taste of red wine – El and Mike had found the wine cellar of this place and they’d tried a bunch of fancy, overpriced bottles to find them all disgusting – and she had meant for it to just be a quick, innocent kiss, but felt herself unable to pull away. The tingling in her lips spread to her whole body and when Lucas reached up to cup her cheek with his hand, she was engulfed in a warmth she’d never want to miss again._

Her face was burning with the memory of their first kiss and even though he’d not be able to tell in the darkness, she turned to hide it in his chest, inhaling his scent in the meantime. She liked moments like this, when it was just them and nobody made jokes about them needing to get a room. It would be even harder now to have moments to themselves, now that their group had grown by seven.

“Lucas”, she said and waited for him to grunt in response. “You know there’s no splitting up after this, right? There’s no us and them anymore.”

Even though she’d only voted to stay back at the asylum because of Mike, she now didn’t want to leave the others behind anymore. Yes, there were many risks involved being such a big group, but there was also safety in numbers and they’d all grown on her. They were her friends just as much as Mike and the others.

He sighed. “I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At first I wanted to put everyone's solo adventures in one chapter, then I thought two groups per chapter and now I'm giving each group their own because these chapters just grow and grow.   
> But it gives me the time to develop some of these relationships and give some backstories.   
> Next up: Will, Bill and Mike


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill gets fixed up, Mike hates blood and Will shares a vision with them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Watch me struggle with the two Mikes again, and Mike Wheeler isn't even in this lol
> 
> Updating will probably take this long now as my obsession with IT and ST has died down and I'm not writing as much anymore, but I'm determined to finish this

There was blood on his hands and on the front of his shirt, where he had touched Bill. The sweet smell was overwhelming, but when he tried to breathe through his mouth, he was convinced he could taste it on his tongue.

They hadn’t been driving long and Mike knew they shouldn’t stop yet, but if he was forced to sit next to Bill, who was drenched in blood, much longer he’d throw up.

“We should clean you up”, he said. “See how bad that wound is.”

“I feel f-f-fine. We should keep driving.”

“No, Mikey is right”, Will said. “We have to make sure it’s not getting infected and switch drivers. I shouldn’t really be driving much.”

“Wh-…” Mike cut himself up, as he felt the bile rise in his stomach. He swallowed a few times to keep it down and took a deep breath, but that only made it worse.

He saw the concern on Bill’s face, but when he reached out to place a hand on his shoulder, Mike only saw the blood. It was drying and cracking now, but on Bill’s face it still had that fresh, wet sheen.

 

_His lungs were burning, his legs aching, but he kept pushing forward. All he could hear was his own heartbeat and his parents’ panting as they ran through the field. The high corn plants were their only chance of escape. If only they could crouch down and hide from the agents, but he knew they were too close. Another sound mixed with his heartbeat now. He’d gone hunting with his dad in the woods behind their farm once, he knew what gun shots sounded like. But he’d never been shot at before. They were trying to kill them. He had known that before, but the realisation only really sunk in now and it made him freeze up._

_A bullet flew by his face, as his father yanked him forward and made him continue running. Something else hit him hard in the back of his leg. It felt like that one time when Matthew Dawson had used his slingshot on him. If it hadn’t been for his father’s strong grip on his wrist, he might’ve fallen; now he just stumbled a few steps before he regained his balance._

_More shots, and suddenly his father was going down, still holding onto him and dragging him to the ground with him. The wind was knocked out of him as he landed face first on the dry ground._

_“Get up!” His mother frantically grabbed at him, squeezing his arm a little too hard, nails scraping over his skin._

_As he tried to push himself up, his hand landed in something warm and wet. There were still shots ringing out, as if it wasn’t just a few agents but a whole army shooting at them. A bullet hit him in the back of the neck and he fell down again, the scream of pain muffled by dirt and more of the warm slickness. The copper taste coated his lips, but he didn’t actually see the cherry colour of it – didn’t register it as blood – until he turned his head and was met with the wide, unseeing eyes of his father; saw the blood spilling from the small hole in his neck, flowing from another wound in his chest._

_He wanted to scream, to run, to cry, but his mind was blank. He couldn’t move. Not even when his mother screamed, one long, shrill scream and collapsed on top of him. He felt her blood soak his shirt, cling to his skin. Her breath was ruby bubbles on her lips. With her last strength she touched a finger to his forehead, his nose, his lips._

_Mike held his breath as the gun shots died away and the only sound was the rustling of the corn as someone made their way through the field. He couldn’t see the man with his face still pressed into the dirt and his mother’s body on top of him, but he could feel his presence._

_“Damn Supers!”, the agent spat. “Always try to run or fight. Look at this mess!”_

_His mother jerked as the agent kicked at her legs. “Clean this up, Holster! There must be some gasoline in the barn.”_

_“Yes, sir.”_

_Mike listened to both men retreat, then waited an extra minute before he thought it was safe to move. He bit his lip hard to keep himself from making any sound as he came face to face with his parents’ lifeless expressions. He wanted to take them with him, but knew he couldn’t carry them both. And how disappointed would they be, if the agents caught him because he couldn’t leave their bodies behind._

_He brushed his hand over their eyes, closing them one last time. “I’m sorry.”_

_It wasn’t until he was way into the woods that the realization sunk in and he broke down. He was alone now._

 

As soon as Will had stopped the car, Mike jumped out, and managed to take all of three steps before he started retching. The contents of his stomach emptying into the yellowing grass at the side of the road, even when it was all gone, his stomach was still heaving. He spat the clear bile and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. At least the metallic taste was gone, but he didn’t much enjoy the burning throat and the lingering sourness on his tongue either.

“Are you alright?”

Will cautiously stepped closer, holding out a water bottle for him. Mike took it without a word, tried to first wash away the awful taste in his mouth and then wash the blood off his hands. Although he was tempted to use all of the water, he forced himself to recap the bottle as soon as he was somewhat clean.

“I’m not good with blood”, he said. His voice was a little hoarse now.

“I’ll say. You can stay here and I’ll see how bad Bill is hurt”, Will offered.

Mike shook his head. “I’m good now.”

They walked back to the car together, where Bill had crawled onto the truck bed and was searching through the bags, leaving bloody fingerprints on them. The sight made Mike’s stomach churn again, but there was nothing left to throw up.

“Let’s look at your wound”, he called, his voice shaky.

Bill sighed and crawled to the edge of the bed, sitting with his legs dangling. When Mike made no move to go closer, Will grabbed the water bottle from him and stepped in front of Bill. There was nowhere near enough water to clean him up.

“Where does it hurt?”, Will asked. With all the blood it was hard to see where it had originally come from.

Bill pointed at his right cheek. “Doesn’t hurt much.”

But when Will started pouring the water over his face, he winced. Typical Bill, he could get his arm ripped off and still insist it was nothing more than a scratch. To be fair, the wound didn’t look as bad, considering it had been a gun shot. The bullet had merely grazed him and split the skin, but was still deep enough to leave an ugly scar spreading from beneath his eye and into his hairline as it healed. In fact, there was still a faint trickle of blood coming from it.

“You got really lucky”, Will said. “A slightly different angle and you would’ve been dead.”

How had that even happened? Why hadn’t Bill used his power to hold off the bullets? Mike had been too focused on getting their stuff from the asylum and keeping Stan save in the process to pay attention to what had been going on around him.

It didn’t matter now. What was done was done, but Will was right. Bill was a lucky bastard. Mike went back to the front of the truck to search for the first-aid kit. With Eddie around they hadn’t got much use for it lately, and he hoped they had at least kept it stocked. They’d once run out of bandages when Richie had been bit by a vicious badger and they had to improvise. Luckily, they didn’t have to do that today. When Mike checked the kit, he found it to be poorly equipped, but there was still enough stuff to patch Bill up.

He brought it back to Will, who took care of Bill with a gentle touch, but he worked so quickly and thoroughly it was clear he’d done this too many times.

When he was done, Bill pulled his shirt off and used it to scrub the blood from his skin, then tossed it behind him. “Are you okay, Mike?”

He eyed the bloodstained shirt one last time. “I’m good now.”

“Good”, Bill said as he already put on a new shirt and hopped off the truck. “Then we c-c-can get a m-move on. I’ll drive.”

That was probably the best. They’d already spent too much time here at the side of the road and who knew if ASHA was still following them. Either way they still had a long trip ahead of them and it didn’t look like Bill was planning on stopping until they’d reached the camp.

* * *

 

Mike jerked out of the light slumber he’d fallen into as something heavy landed on his shoulder. Judging by the complete darkness around them, Bill had driven long into the night. It was probably time to switch drivers soon. He looked down at Will, who had fallen into his side, his head resting on Mike’s shoulder.

Bill looked over at them. “Never seen someb-b-body fall asleep like that. Out l-l-l-l-like a light. Literally.”

He wasn’t sleeping though. Mike had seen him have visions before, and could tell by the rapid eye movements under his closed lids, that this wasn’t normal sleep. Gently, Mike grabbed him by the shoulders and pressed him back into his seat, letting his head fall to his chest. Hopefully he wouldn’t come to and tell them one of their friends was hurt or caught by ASHA.

“Aren’t you tired?”, Mike asked, when he caught a glimpse of Will’s watch. It was almost two in the morning. “You should let me drive.”

“I’m fine.”

“Stan is going to kill me, when he finds out I didn’t make you rest up after getting shot in the face.”

“The b-bullet only grazed me.” Bill brushed his fingers over the bandage Will had applied to his face. “And you don’t have t-to t-t-t-tell him.”

“You know Stan. He’ll find out.”

Bill sighed and stopped the car. Mike could drive, but he wasn’t very good at it. He blamed Richie for being an awful teacher, but he probably just lacked the practice, always preferring to take the passenger seat instead. Besides, Richie was a better teacher than Stan or Bill, who were horrible at hiding their impatience.

As soon as Bill had gotten comfortable in the seat next to Will, he had to stifle a yawn. “Just k-keep following the road. We still have to go west f-fo-for a while.”

A while meaning anywhere between 8 and 18 hours, depending on if they were going to take a direct route or not. Considering how impatient Bill was, they probably were.

It didn’t take long for Bill to fall asleep. Mike felt his eyes droop and rolled down the window, hoping the cool night air would help keep him awake. They should’ve taken a real break, but he was lucky he’d gotten Bill to switch drivers at all.

Next to him, Will sighed and with a smile on his lips, his eyes fluttered open. “Mike”, he muttered.

“Yeah?”

Will sat up straighter, letting his gaze wander through the truck before resting on Mike, the smile slowly fading. It seemed to take him a good minute to understand this wasn’t the Mike he was looking for and then another few moments to catch up to the present.

“Everything okay?”, Mike asked, when Will didn’t say anything else. “It wasn’t a bad vision, was it?”

Will adjusted in his seat, careful not to disturb Bill’s sleep. “No. I…” His voice drifted off as he considered telling Mike about it or not. “I usually tell Mike when I see my brother and his sister. It’s the only way we get to know what’s going on with them.”

Mike nodded, pretending to know what it was like to have anyone outside his group of friends he cared about. Maybe it was a good thing that he didn’t have anyone to miss, it wasn’t like he’d ever be able to go back to them. “Do you see them often?”

He shook his head. “Not as much as I like to. Sometimes I trigger a vision with Dustin’s help, but it only makes me miss them more.”

“Are you the only one in your family?”, he asked. Sometimes he wondered how adult Supers had gone their whole life without being caught. Bill and Richie’s parents had somehow managed and his own had gotten so close to living a peaceful life until ASHA had shown up at the farm.

“Jonathan can manipulate pictures, it’s really cool. My mom thinks we’ve got it from our dad, but we’re not sure. She’s always been scared ASHA would come for us and made us swear to never tell anyone or use our powers in public.” Will smiled. “She is probably so mad at me for leaving with Mike, when I didn’t have to.”

Like any mother would. Over the years it had become harder and harder to recall his mother’s face or voice, but Mike could still imagine the lecture she’d give him, if he had run off and made himself a target like that.

“You didn’t want your friend to be alone”, Mike said. “I would’ve done the same thing.”

Will looked at him for a moment, his dark eyes searching his face. For what, Mike didn’t know, didn’t know if he found it either. “Yeah”, he sighed. “I still disappointed her though.”

Mike reached over and squeezed his shoulder. “If she could see you and everything you do, I’m sure she’d be very proud of you.”

Will snorted. “Thanks, but… I don’t really do anything.”

“You drove a car through a bunch of ASHA agents that were shooting at us, getting me and Bill to safety, and afterwards you took care of Bill’s wound better than either of us could’ve done and took the time to check up on me and that was just today. You don’t need to flip cars like El to be important.”

It had taken him a long time to understand that he was just as important to his group as all the others even if he ‘only’ had impenetrable skin – a power that only saved his own butt. He’d shielded his friends with his body countless times, but it wasn’t even that that was important. It wasn’t all about powers. Nobody else knew much about gardening, so the past year or so it had been his job to make sure they had fresh vegetables to eat, and he was there when they needed him, which sounded simple enough, but it was the times when the others confided in him that he felt needed the most.

Will smiled timidly. “Thank you.” His eyes fell to Mike’s hand still on his shoulder and Mike quickly pulled it away, not wanting to overstep any boundaries. “What about your parents? Where are they?”

He turned his attention back to the road. Parents and family was just never a good topic around his friends as it brought up so many bad memories for all of them, so Mike wasn’t used to talking about them or being asked many questions. It was a bit of a surprise to him that the question didn’t bother him at all; that he wanted to tell Will.

“They’re dead”, he said. “ASHA pulled up to our farm one day and we took off running through the cornfield. Can’t outrun bullets though.”

He felt Will’s eyes on him, could feel the pity radiating off him. Did he regret having asked now? “I think they were coming for my parents or they didn’t know about my power. My mom had… They thought I was dead. I got away before they burnt the whole place down.”

When he’d gone back the day after, there had only been smouldering ashes left. They’d done a thorough job.

“I’m sorry.”

They drove in silence for a long while after that. Mike glanced at Will several times to see if he had fallen asleep, but he was just staring at the road ahead of them that was visible in their headlights.

“How old were you?”

“11, almost 12. It’s been a long time.” So long that he didn’t even think much of his parents anymore.

“Not long enough to forget about the blood”, Will said. “That’s what it reminds you of, isn’t it?”

He gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. “Yes.”

This time Will reached out to place his hand over Mike’s. It looked pale and small in comparison, but when Will tried to loosen his grip, there was an unexpected strength there. He let Will pry his hand off, who gave it a short squeeze and pulled back.

“You don’t have to stay up with me”, Mike said, when he saw Will stifle a yawn. “I know you’ve been up with Bill too.”

Will shrugged. “You look really tired. I wouldn’t want you to drive off the road.”

“No, really, you should get some sleep.”

When he looked at Mike, Will wore that same amused expression he’d seen on Bev’s face so many times, right before she called him Mama Mike and to stop worrying about it. He sighed and returned the smile. “Or don’t. Do whatever.”

* * *

 

They’d finally been able to talk Bill into taking a break. They’d pulled into a gas station to fill the truck up and get some food, where it turned out that Will was a natural charmer and spent a good 15 minutes having small talk with the girl behind the counter that allowed Bill and Mike to stuff their pockets unseen.

Now they sat on the bed of the truck that was parked behind some shrubs, and had their first meal since breakfast yesterday. Bill, being Bill, was already half finished with his share of their stolen goods, while Will hadn’t so much as touched his

“Do you even chew?”, Mike asked as he watched Bill shove a whole donut into his mouth.

That only prompted Bill to open his mouth and start chewing loud and obnoxiously. “Want me to b-b-birdfeed you?”

Mike pulled a face. “I’m good, thanks.” He’d actually watched Bill and Richie do that once, both too stubborn to back out of the dare and it had been the grossest thing. He definitely didn’t want to relive that, not to mention being part of that.

Bill picked up one of the snacks from Will’s pile and threw it in his lap. “Come on, Will. Eat!”

Will snapped out of his daze to look at the snack, twisting it between his fingers. He hadn’t slept more than an hour or two and there were dark circles forming under his eyes, and except for the girl earlier, he hadn’t spoken more than a few words all morning.

“What’s going on?”, Mike asked. “Did you have another vision?”

A high-pitched laugh escaped him, before he muffled it by clasping both hands over his mouth. Mike and Bill exchanged a look. Something was definitely going on. Had he lied last night? Had his vision not been about his brother at all? Maybe he’d seen their friends…

“A vision would be great right now”, Will said, his voice rising as he spoke. “At least then I’d know if he was dead already! It’s been a day! A whole day!”

He ripped the bag open and sent chips flying everywhere, but it wasn’t like he even noticed. Bill flicked a chip off his knee and was about to say something, when Will continued his rant: “What the hell is the thinking? He always reaches out to us and he hasn’t. That can only mean… it means… I knew I shouldn’t have let him… And they are all there!”

“Who’s there?”, Mike asked.

“What are you t-ta-talking about?”, Bill asked.

Another giggle. This time Will didn’t bother to hide it. He looked almost scary with the wild expression on his face, his already big eyes the size of saucers, and that humourless smile on his face. “Mike. He is going to die… if he hasn’t already.”

The silence following his words was deafening. There was no doubt about that statement. Mike knew Will wasn’t a big joker, that he chose his words carefully before speaking them, and despite the crazed look he had never looked more serious about anything.

Bill shook his head. “No, he isn’t. Why d-d-d-d-do you s-say that?”

“He’s with Richie”, Mike said. “He’d never let anything happen to Mike.”

“Yeah”, Bill agreed. “And Ed-d-d-die is there too. He’ll f-fix him right u-up.”

That only made Will laugh harder. With tears in his eyes, he was wheezing with laughter, slamming his hands on his legs, crushing more chips in the process. “Eddie… Eddie can’t do… shit”, he said in between fits of laughter.

Mike reached out to place his hand on Will’s knee in an attempt to ground him, but Will pushed it away. “Will”, Mike said. “I’m sure they are fine.”

Will gasped for air. “I saw it! Okay? I saw it before I even met you.” He crushed some more chips and gathered the crumbs in his hands, suddenly much calmer. “After El and Max saw you at the gas station, I tried for a vision and I saw it. Eddie and Dustin were trying to heal him, but there… God there was much blood. They couldn’t do it.”

Why had he never said anything about that? Was that why he’d been so cold towards Eddie? Because Eddie could heal but wouldn’t be able to heal his friend? Eddie and Dustin together were pretty powerful, how could they not be able to save Mike?

Bill shook his head again, more fiercely this time. “No! You’re m-m-mak-king that up. If that was true, you w-w-w-would’ve t-told so-someone.”

“How do you tell your best friend that he’s going to die, Bill?”, Will asked. “How do you tell your friends one of them is going to die and you can’t do anything to save him?”

“There must be s-s-something we c-c-can do!”

They’d only known each other for about a week, but the idea of Mike dying, the mention of the blood, made him feel cold inside. He himself would probably be fine. He’d lost people like that before, he could do it again, if he had to, but it would absolutely ruin his friends. He felt even worse for thinking that. Mike was his friend too, but he knew he wouldn’t be as devastated by his death as Richie would be, as El and Will would be.

“But…”, he started, rethought his words and tried again. “You said that your visions don’t always come true. This might be one of them.”

“I hoped. I sure tried. I told him to leave the asylum, I tried everything…” Will’s voice broke. “Everything to change it. But now… He’s with Dustin and Eddie who definitely were in that vision and he hasn’t reached out to me with his power like he normally would, so…”

That couldn’t be right. If Mike really was dying somewhere, they’d know. Bill would’ve known if they were in danger, he’d have felt that pull. But what if Bill wasn’t close enough to Mike for his power to work on him? What if the others weren’t in danger, what if it only was Mike? Then it wouldn’t work.

“I only went with him to protect him”, Will muttered, “and I couldn’t even do that.”

“Shut up!” Bill jumped off the truck and started pacing alongside it. “Th-th-they are fine! You should’ve s-said something sooner.”

“Bill”, Mike sighed. “Stop that.” It wasn’t a secret that Bill thought it was his job to protect everyone, that he had his power solely to protect his friends and that he took it personally when he was unable to do so, but this wasn’t the time for that. “Will did what he thought was right.”

“Doesn’t make it right!”

Will glared at him, but didn’t say anything. He’d probably beat himself up over this forever, if something actually had happened to Mike and the others. Just because he had a vision, didn’t make it his fault of course, but maybe it would’ve helped if he’d told someone about it. Maybe Mike would’ve been more careful… or maybe it would’ve freaked him out and made everything worse. He wasn’t sure what he would’ve done in Will’s position. Was telling really the right decision, when the vision might not even come true?

“Let’s not assume the worst”, he said. With Will already picturing Mike dead and Bill starting to panic and worry, he was the only sane one left and should act accordingly. “We don’t know what happened to them. They are probably completely fine, just haven’t had the opportunity to check in with you yet.”

Bill snorted. “Or dead. All of th-them.”

“No. It’s just Mike”, Will said, but when their eyes met, Mike saw the uncertainty in them. “I saw it.”

“Thank fuck, you did! And th-th-thank you for saying s-something so soon”, Bill half-shouted. “Would’ve been b-b-b-b-… stupid to wait until we’re spl-l-l-lit up and c-can’t do anything ab-b-b-b-b-b-BOUT it. Oh wait…”

He kicked the tire of the truck so hard he lost his balance, then mumbled something else under his breath and walked away. Mike was glad that he did, because he wouldn’t know what to do if he and Will got into an argument now. They watched Bill as he kept pacing in the distance, no doubt cursing Will and his vision some more.

After a long, awkward silence between them, Mike gathered the rest of their food and threw it on the backseat. “Your visions don’t always come true. For now, let’s just assume this is one of them.”

When Will didn’t react, he stopped to give him a stern look. He needed this. Mike was aware that one didn’t change the future by pure power of belief, but right now, while everything was so uncertain, he needed to cling to the hope that Will was wrong. “Let’s do that, okay?”

Will took a deep breath, looked up at the pale-blue sky and exhaled. “I didn’t know Bill even cared about Mike.”

It took him some self-restraint not to jump back up on the bed of the truck and shake Will, so he’d finally agree to indulge him. He doubted Bill’s reaction had much to do with Mike. _Or dead. All of them._ What would it do to Bill if anything happened to the others while they were split up?

“He’s right”, Will continued. “I should’ve said something sooner, but until ASHA showed up, I was sure I could prevent it. I was so sure I could convince Mike to leave you guys behind.”

“And how would that have helped?”

“It would’ve changed it. If we split again, Eddie wouldn’t be there and Mike wouldn’t die.”

“Eddie wasn’t the one who killed him.”

Will sighed. “You don’t get it. Remove Eddie from the vision and nothing changes, but remove Eddie from our lives and the future is changed and the vision will never come true.”

So that’s why Will had always been kind of cold towards Eddie. Mike still didn’t really understand how that would work. If he’d understood correctly, Eddie and Dustin had tried to save Mike in the vision, so by removing Eddie from their lives, it only meant he wouldn’t be there to save Mike, making his death more certain. But then again, he’d never tried to change the future before.

He rested his arms on the truck as he watched Bill, who had calmed down enough to sit down and steam in silence, then looked back at Will. “We’ll have to find a different way to keep your vision from coming true. Between the three of us, I think we’ll be able to keep Mike alive.”

The corners of Will’s mouth twitched with the beginning of a smile, but then the frown returned. “If he isn’t already dead, you mean.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beverly thought she'd drawn the short stick by being stuck with El, but that was before they get unwelcome visitors and her luck changes for the worse.

“We have to go back!”

The way El stared at her, Beverly was surprised she hadn’t gone flying into the nearest wall yet. She’d been complaining about splitting up the whole ride to the motel, but at least then Bev had been able to drown her out by speeding up. It didn’t look like she could avoid the conversation any longer.

“They won’t even be there. I told you, we’re meeting up with them again in a few days.”

Like the numerous times before, this did nothing to calm El down, but Bev was slowly losing her patience with her. How was it so hard to understand that they had no way of tracking the others down and would have to wait until they got to the meeting place?

El tried to stare her down for another agonizing two minutes until she huffed and turned towards the bike in the parking lot. “I’m going to find them”, she said, looking at Bev over her shoulder. “With or without you!”

The only thing Bev was worried about when El mounted the bike was that it might fall and need repairs that she didn’t have the tools for here. She let El play out her little fantasy of stealing the bike and riding off without her for a while, leaning against the white wall of the motel with her arms crossed.

“Don’t know how to drive that, do you?”, she said, when this whole spiel had dragged on for long enough.  

El’s face was red and it was hard to tell if it was held-back anger, embarrassment or both. With a huff she got off the bike and as she strode past Bev to get into the room they had rented, she mumbled obscenities under her breath that Bev was surprised she even knew. She certainly hadn’t heard El swear before.

Sending one last look up to the stars, Bev followed her inside, not even they could help her if she ended up accidentally strangling El.

 

An hour later and neither of them had said another word as they sat in complete darkness except for the flickering lights of the television. There had been nothing about them on the news, which was kind of odd. Maybe they were lucky and ASHA wasn’t actually after them specifically, but had just turned up at the asylum because someone mentioned superhuman activities to them. If they knew who they were, they’d have their faces on every news channel and in every paper tomorrow morning.

She glanced at El, who had turned herself into a blanket burrito and stared with unseeing eyes at the screen. The girl really knew how to sulk; she could give Eddie and Stan a run for their money.

To get her attention, Bev threw her bag of M&Ms into her lap, only to immediately follow them and jump onto El’s bed.

“Look”, she said, pulling her legs underneath herself. “I’m not thrilled to be stranded here with you either, but it’s better than being all alone, right? I promise you, we’ll see the others again soon and then you won’t have to hang out with me ever again.”

El’s frown disappeared, but it still took her a while to finally open her mouth to speak. “I don’t mind your company.”

“Oh.” Well who was being the jerk now? Bev wished she could bite her tongue off sometimes, but it was too late to backpedal now.

El’s small hands appeared from under her blanket and grabbed the bag of candy. “I… I have never been without them. They have been without me, but I’ve never been without them.”

Yeah, the award for biggest jerk definitely went to her. Here El was, scared of being out in the world without her friends for the first time and Bev made fun of her and told her she didn’t want to be stuck with her. Bev had only been in the ASHA facility for a few days, she could not imagine what it would be like to grow up in one. All things considered, El was a lot less messed up than one would expect from a child raised as a lab rat.

“And you won’t be for long. We’ll be driving all day tomorrow”, Bev said. They would probably be the first ones at the camp anyway. Richie’s old, piece of crap van was cosy and nostalgic but it really wasn’t the best choice for a getaway car, neither was the ugly bus El and her friends had rolled in on. Bill’s truck was in pretty good condition – of course it was, he prided himself on that thing – but it still couldn’t keep up with her bike. That was why she loved it so much. That and the fact that she had never felt as free as she did when she was zooming down the highway on it. “Your ass is going to be so sore, you’ll never want to sit down again.”

At the word ‘ass’, El’s eyes lit up, her lips tucked into a small smile.

“Really? If I had known all it would take to make you laugh are fart noises and curse words, I would’ve led with that.”

El pressed her palm against her lips and produced a loud and long fart noise that could rival Richie’s, then she dissolved into a heap of giggles.

Not to be outdone, Bev raised her arm and did the same, only hers sounded wetter and nastier and made El laugh even harder.

“I’m sorry”, Bev said, once El had calmed down a bit.

“Why?”

“Because I said I was stuck with you. I wasn’t very nice to you, so… I’m sorry.”

“Will says it’s okay to be jealous as long as you don’t hurt anyone.” El opened the M&Ms and threw a handful in her mouth, then continued to speak around them. “It’s better to talk about it.”

What? Jealous? How had she gotten to that conclusion? Did she think Bev was interested in Mike? “I-I-I… I’m not…”, she stammered, still at a loss for words.

“I am. Will says Mike would never leave us, but Lucas says he might to be with Richie. And I wouldn’t know what to do if we have to split up.”

This was about Mike and Richie? She hadn’t even thought about Richie leaving them to be with his brother and now that she was, it didn’t seem very likely. And even if he did, she couldn’t bring herself to be mad about it. He deserved to have a loving family. She also thought it would be obvious for El to stay with Mike, but apparently she hadn’t grasped the dynamic of their friend group as well as she thought.

“I don’t think you have to worry about that, El. Nobody is leaving anyone.” What was the point of going separate ways? They were all in the same boat anyway.

“But ASHA will find us. They always do.”

“Exactly. So what does it matter if they find all of us? We’ll just kick their asses again.”

El chewed her M&Ms loudly as she thought about it. She didn’t seem completely convinced and that El, who knew ASHA the best and arguably was one of the strongest in their group, didn’t think they could, scared Bev a little. Why was it so unlikely? All ASHA had was guns and they were Supers. A large group of Supers. There was strength in numbers.

El swallowed. “Nobody leaves? We all stay together?”

Bev nodded. “I hope so.”

“I’d like that.” She smiled, then held out the bag of candy to Bev.

* * *

 

“Sodium Lau-Lauren Sulfur. Panthenol. Dime-… Di…” She couldn’t remember that one. She couldn’t remember most of the words from the bottle in the shower. Shampoo bottles weren’t the best reading material, she knew, but the only book in the motel room was a bible and she’d read one of those before. That had been a very confusing read and Dustin had gotten so tired of her asking questions about it that he’d thrown his precious comics at her to read “something decent”.

“What’s panthenol?”, she asked Beverly as she stepped back into the room.

Beverly was standing by the window and didn’t turn around as she spoke. “What’s what?”

“Panthenol”, El repeated, hoping she was pronouncing it the right way. She had never heard of any of the words on the bottle, but then she hadn’t heard of a lot of other words either. It’s why she tried to read something every day, and because she wanted to be as good at it as the others, who seemed to be able to read whole blocks of text ten times as fast as she could without stumbling over the words.

“Never heard of it.”

“It was on the shampoo bottle.” Since Beverly was still staring out the window, El figured something must be going on and stepped closer.

Beverly snorted. “The bottle? Nobody knows what…” She stifled her laughter and pointed outside. “Never mind. Look at this, everybody is leaving.”

Outside the few other guests of the motel were leaving their rooms, quietly but quickly getting into their cars or just disappearing down the road.

El’s stomach dropped when she saw it. She knew exactly what would follow, she’d seen it happen too many times. But how had they found them already? Had they found the others too? Was Mike okay? His group was the weakest, ASHA would get them and kill them. They wouldn’t need them, they had healers and shapeshifters of their own, all of them trained to serve their every need. If ASHA got to them, they were dead.

Her survival instinct kicked in then. She didn’t know if they were dead or not and she had to be alive to find out. Grabbing Beverly by the wrist, she pulled the taller girl away from the window. “It’s ASHA!”

“Are you…?” Her expression must’ve answered Beverly’s question before she even finished it. “The bike is right outside, we can make a run for it.”

El nodded. That was their best chance. Fighting ASHA two days in a row, she’d never have to do that before. She’d also never fought them without Lucas having her back or the reassurance that Dustin could help boost her power if necessary, or Mike reading the agents’ minds and warning her about possible traps. She felt almost helpless without them.

Beverly’s soft hand slipped into her own, squeezing it tightly. When she looked up, Beverly was smiling at her through tight lips. “Stay by my side, yeah? Wouldn’t want to lose you.”

“You too.”

Beverly reached for the doorknob, but waited a moment, looking at El. When El nodded, she turned it, flung the door open and started running.

They only managed to take two steps outside, when someone elbowed Beverly in the face and she lost her grip on El’s hand as she fell to the ground. They’d been waiting for them to leave. El saw two more agents on the other side of the door and another one behind the man who hit Beverly. There must’ve been more, but she didn’t have the time to look for them, when they lunged at her and she threw up her hands to send them flying.

“Beverly!”, she shouted. _Please be okay. Please be okay._ She didn’t dare take her eyes of the recovering agents that now moved in on them again, two of them pulling guns from their waistband. The only woman among them was holding a small black box, El didn’t know what it was called, but she knew what it did. If it touched your skin, it set your body on fire making it impossible to move or even think.

“’m okay”, Beverly groaned as she slowly got to her feet again. “Motherfuckers!”

“Don’t get close to her”, El said, nodding in the direction of the woman. “Too much pain.”

Beverly scoffed. “I’ll show them pain.”

She cracked her head, then started running towards them and all El could do to keep her safe, was to redirect two bullets hurtling towards her to hit the people who had fired them. One agent was dead even before his body hit the ground, the bullet had sliced right through his brain, the other one, however, only stumbled backwards, seemingly not minding a bullet to his chest. “Vest”, El muttered. How stupid of her not to think of that. Of course the agents would wear the vests that protected them from bullets. _Aim for the head, Eleven._ Papa’s voice was still clear in her head, as if she hadn’t tried to wipe him from her mind in the past two years.

For a moment she watched as Beverly grabbed one of the garbage containers and hurled it at the agents, but only long enough to see the woman dodging it, ignoring Beverly and running straight at her. She was soon joined by two more agents, who had come from nowhere. _Not nowhere. Where did they come from?_ Her eyes scanned the motel and parking lot. A few doors were open, so maybe they’d hid inside and if they did, who knew how many more there were. Maybe there were agents in all the rooms just waiting for the right time to join the fight.

Faced with three agents, one of whom holding the dreadful pain box, El didn’t have the time to think more about it. With a sharp turn of her head, she snapped the woman’s neck, trying to drown out the loud crack and the sound of her body collapsing. She’d done this before, too many times to be honest, and yet it still filled her with disgust how easy it was for her. It was either her or them, she knew that, but that didn’t mean, she had to like it. _You are not human, Eleven. Your powers are magnificent, they are so much bigger than you know. You can’t keep them bottled up in that tiny body of yours. That body is a shell, a prison, and I’m here to help you. To release you._

One of the other agents knelt down to pick up the box, so El picked him up with her mind and threw him into his friend. They landed in a heap a few metres away. She heard gunshots, but when she spun around, ready to stop them, she couldn’t see them. The agents around her had guns, but they were all securely in their holsters. Maybe they knew shooting at her was too dangerous, but clearly the same didn’t count for Beverly. El only glanced at her for a second and saw her using one of the dead agents as a shield.

It was a second too long though. The white hot pain shot through her spine and exploded in her head, filling it with that soft humming noise that drowned out everything else. She couldn’t tell if she was still standing or writhing on the floor, she couldn’t even feel her body, just pain. So much pain that it robbed her of her senses.

When the pain finally faded, she was indeed lying on the rough concrete, taking her time to take in her surroundings. The gunshots had stopped, so had the screaming and all other sounds of the fight. A man in a suit stood over her, the pain box still in his hand, but her eyes were drawn by the muffled grunts and groans behind her. Every muscle in her body ached as she turned around, but the pain was forgotten when she saw Beverly. An agent with a ponytail had wrapped a beefy arm around her neck, pressing her into his chest and letting her feet just barely touch the ground, his other hand was covering her mouth. She was fighting against him, her nails digging into his arm and trying to pull it away, but he didn’t budge.

“Don’t worry about your little friend here”, the agent with the pain box said. “She’s lucky we got that bracelet on her or we would’ve had to put her out with a bullet.”

Only now did El notice the thick metal bracelet, clamped tightly around Beverly’s right wrist. It reminded her of the collar they used to put on her in the lab and she had no doubt it worked the same way. Her eyes quickly fell to her own hands, for some reason she didn’t have one. But the white pain had scrambled her brain enough that she couldn’t even feel her power. _How can that be, Papa? If my powers are so much more than me, then how can my pain drive them away?_

“Eleven”, Pain Box said, and the name alone made her feel like vomiting over his shiny leather shoes. It might have been the white pain too. “We’ve been looking for you for a long time. You and Seventeen to be correct, imagine our disappointment when instead we find you with that.” He jerked his head in Beverly’s direction, then crouched down. El scrambled away from him as far as she could, which turned out to not be much as her legs were still too weak to even stand. “It’s very interesting though”, he continued. His breath was sweet and fruity. “We knew you had been travelling with Seventeen, but we’re really interested to know how you came across Twenty-two here. And if you met some more of our friends.”

Did he mean other Supers in general or other ASHA projects. Ben. If Papa knew about Ben, he’d want him back. Years of training and hard work had been lost and Ben’s power was quite unique. They probably didn’t have anyone else like him.

She looked from Pain Box to Ponytail and then to the empty parking lot. How long had she been out of it? It was a scene like one of Max’s favourite bloody movies. Torn limbs and smashed heads. It must’ve cost most of them their lives to try and put that bracelet on Beverly. She counted eight agents not including the two still alive.

“You didn’t want to shoot her”, she said, when she turned back to Pain Box.

He smiled. “We’ve monitored you, Eleven. You might think you’ve gotten away from us, but the truth is, we’ve always known where you are. And I know how much you like your little friends.” _You’re weak. You’re holding back because you’re afraid. You’re too soft._ His smile grew into an ugly grin. “You know why I didn’t shoot her.”

Papa had been so angry when she’d refused to kill the cat. He’d ordered shock treatment after shock treatment, had locked her in the Dark Box, had given her the Pain Box and she’d still refused. Beverly was here to make sure she played along.

“E-El”, Beverly croaked. “Don’t.”

Even if she wanted to, she wouldn’t be able to say anything. She didn’t know where the others were, didn’t know where the meeting spot was. And even if she did and she told them, ASHA didn’t need Beverly. She wasn’t trained and she was too old. _Do you know why you’re my favourite, Eleven? We have a lot of kids here, but none of them have your potential. None of them understand what it means to be a Super like you do. They all think there are people out there who care for them, who understand them. You’re too smart for that._ No matter what she did, Beverly was going to die.

Pain Box grabbed El’s arm and pulled her into the nearest room, Ponytail and Beverly followed close behind them. He had to drag El all the way because her limbs still felt like jelly, then dumped her on the floor, only giving her enough space that he still could use the pain box on her.

“Let’s make this quick”, he said. “You tell us were Seventeen and the rest of your friend are, we go pick them up and then your field trip is finally over. It’s time to get back to reality.”

El stared back at him, wishing she could hurt him with her hatred alone. “His name is Lucas.”

“That wasn’t my question.” He tapped one long finger against the pain box in his hand. “Where is he?”

Hopefully safe. If he was going to hurt them to find the other, it had to mean ASHA hadn’t found them. At least there was that.

“Don’t make me ask again”, he snarled, when she refused to answer. He sent a look to Ponytail, who fastened his hold around Beverly’s neck, making her gasp and kick her legs.

“I don’t know”, El said quickly. “I don’t know!”

Pain Box sighed. “That’s unfortunate.”

Beverly was too occupied with struggling to breathe that she couldn’t see what was about to happen, but El saw it. She knew that look on his face as he moved closer to Beverly and Ponytail. Maybe she didn’t know him, but she’d seen it on other ASHA people. The badly hidden joy of making someone hurt.

“Maybe Twenty-Two can help us out.” He held the pain box to Beverly’s stomach, a small sliver of air being all that separated her from the pain she was about to experience.

“I…” She had trouble getting the words out.

“We don’t know”, El yelled. “She doesn’t know!”

The aftermath of the pain box was still in her system, she could barely move her arms and legs, her head still felt like someone had split it open, but El knew she had to snap out of it. She had to reconnect with her powers if she wanted to save Beverly and herself. Her powers where still there, she just had to find them. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

“You see that, Red?”, Pain Box said. “She knows this is not going to be pretty.”

El gritted her teeth. She knew her anger wasn’t the best emotion to draw strength from, but right now it was all she had. It would have to do. She thought about the arm around Beverly’s throat, pictured the bone in it, thought about the sound it would make when it snapped.

At Ponytail’s howling, her eyes flew open. He’d let go of Beverly, who was lying in a heap on the floor now, and was cradling his broken arm to his chest.

“Fuck!”, he screamed. “That bitch broke my arm! I told you…”

The rest of his words were drowned out by another explosion of pain in her entire body. It glowed white and hot behind her eyelids and it ripped her from the room, from her body, until she couldn’t feel anything but, until all she was, was pain.

And then it stopped just as quickly as it had started, leaving her numb and barely aware she had returned to her body.

“You bitch!” Ponytail’s voice sounded hysterical now. “I’m gonna…”

“Shut up!” Beverly’s voice, albeit hoarse and quieter than usual, was firm. “Get away from the door! Stand over there.”

It was so hard to open her eyes, but El knew everything had changed in those few moments she had been engulfed in pain. She could feel the change, could feel the hope. Someone gently placed a finger against her neck, then brushed the curls out of her face.

“El, come on”, Beverly muttered. “It’s alright now.”

When she finally managed to open her eyes, she saw Beverly’s freckly face first, then the gun in her hand that was still pointed at Ponytail, who was standing in the corner. And then she saw the blood pooling around the lifeless body of Pain Box and the bullet hole over his left eye.

Now that Beverly was sure, she was okay, she got back to her feet and walked over to Ponytail. “Too bad your stupid bracelet didn’t take my ability to shoot a gun.” She tapped the thing on her wrist. “Or too bad you aren’t smart enough to secure your gun correctly, idiot.”

The big guy deflated like a balloon, sunk to his knees and tried hard not to cry. “Please don’t shoot me! I’m so sorry. I was just following orders. Please don’t kill me.”

“We have a few questions for you now and if you can answer them all to our satisfaction we’ll let you go.”

As soon as the feeling returned to her limbs enough for her to move, El crawled away from the blood and towards Beverly. What questions was she talking about? Through the fuzziness all her brain was telling her, was to get the hell out of this place, but Beverly seemed to have a different idea.

“First question, how did you find us?”

“We just followed your tracks.”

“Bullshit! You would’ve been here earlier and just because I had trouble breathing, doesn’t mean I was completely deaf throughout your buddy’s speech. You’re tracking us and I want to know how.”

He shook his head. “I’ll be a dead man. They’ll kill me if I tell you.”

“And I will if you don’t.” Without taking her gun off him, Beverly went over to Pain Box’s body and retrieved the small box from him, then returned. “Let’s get something straight…”

“Stephen.”

“Stephen. Good. Do you have a family, Stephen? A wife? Kids? Anybody who’s going to miss you?”

What was she doing? They should just kill him and get out of here before more agents showed up. They were probably on their way right now and Beverly wanted to have a chat with this guy?

“I take your silence to mean that you do. That means you have more than me and El. I’m sure you know all about El’s history, don’t you? How you took her chance at having a family and turned her into your lab rat instead.”

His eyes wandered to her and El quickly looked at her hands. She didn’t know her mother, didn’t even know her name, just that she had given birth to her in the ASHA facility. She didn’t know if her mother was still alive and she didn’t know anything about the father either.

“I bet you love your kids and that you want to see them again, don’t you? You want to go home and tuck them into bed and kiss them goodnight and you’ll tell them, you love them”, Beverly said, her voice was almost soft when she spoke, but turned hard and resentful the next moment. “Just like my dad. Only he is dead. So you see, we can’t go home to our families, because ASHA destroyed them. But you can. You can tell me what I want to know and then you’ll go home, grab your family and disappear. Or…” She held up the pain box.

El wanted to snatch it from her and make him scream in pain, wanted him to know what it felt like, but she could barely stand, let alone wrestle with Beverly.

“Let’s start with something easier”, Beverly said, when Stephen took a long time to say anything. “How do I get the bracelet off?”

“It’s a magnetic field. You won’t get it off without the right amount of electricity”, he said. “We have a device for that, but you smashed it to bits along with the other bracelet.”

They couldn’t get it off? That was not good. How were they supposed to fight off ASHA with her being a human scrambled egg and Beverly unable to use her powers? They were – as Dustin would put it – deep in the shits.

Beverly looked at it with disgust. “That’s just fucking perfect.”

“We have to go, Beverly”, El said, when the seconds ticked by and nobody said or did anything. “There will be more.”

She nodded. “You’re right. Tic Toc, Stephen, how do you track us? Think about your kids, do it for them.”

He looked at the gun, then out of the window, probably hoping for backup to show up, but he was out of luck. “She is chipped.”

Chipped… Another word she had never heard before. What did that mean? “I’m what?”

“Chipped”, he repeated. “They did it right after you were born. I don’t know where it is, but it shows them everything. Your vitals, your location, when you use your powers. Whatever they want to know.”

That still made no sense to her. How could they know all that about her, when they weren’t near her? That was impossible.

Beverly caught her helpless expression. “It’s something they put in your body, I think. We’ll have to find it before we meet the others or…” She stopped herself and turned back to Stephen. “Are the others chipped too? Lucas and Ben?”

“Who?”

“Thirteen and… and Seventeen?”

“Thirteen?” His whole face lit up. “You know where Thirteen is?” She had been right then. Ben was important to them, maybe just as important than she was, or maybe even more.

Beverly thrust the gun at him. “Are they?”

Stephen flinched away from it. “No. No, they only chip babies and toddlers to make sure they stay healthy and don’t die. Teenagers are more robust.”

“You disgust me.”

They had put something inside her when she’d been a baby to make sure she was healthy, not because they cared for her, but because it would be a loss for the organisation. She needed to find it and get rid of it, just the thought that it had been in her the whole time made her sick. They had always known, where she was, had spied on her her whole life.

“El?”, Beverly asked, pulling her out of her thoughts. “Any more questions for Stephen?”

She shook her head, but then something occurred to her. “If you knew where I was the whole time, why didn’t you catch us sooner?”

He shrugged. “We weren’t supposed to. The order changed only recently. Bring Eleven and Seventeen in alive. Brenner thinks you’re ready for the next step.”

Papa. Hearing his name made her stomach turn and for a moment she feared she was actually going to throw up. It was all too much, the nausea from the Pain Box, the chip thing, Papa’s hold on her. He was still watching her, still training her. Was this… Was her escape part of that? The collar that supressed her powers had fallen away and she hadn’t thought twice about getting Lucas and making a run for it. Lucas had blamed a power outage, but now… Had they wanted them to escape? Had they let them go?

“We’ve got to go now”, Beverly said, pressing the gun to his forehead.

All colour drained from his ugly face. “You said, you wouldn’t. You said I was free to go!”

“I lied”, she said simply. “You’re a liability, Stephen. We can’t let you live.”

El thought for a moment about his kids and his family and wanted to stop Beverly. They didn’t have to kill him, did they? They had to get out of here, get that chip thing out of her body and then meet up with the others. He wouldn’t be in the way of that.

“Can’t we?”, she asked.

Beverly shook her head. “He knows I still have the bracelet on. He knows we know where to find Ben and Lucas. It’s too dangerous.”

“Think about your father”, Stephen pleaded. “Wouldn’t you have wanted for him to come home to you? To see him again?”

“You stupid, ugly motherfucker!”, Beverly snarled. There was an odd look in her eyes, something El had not seen before, not on her at least. “ _I_ killed my father. I only said that to get you to talk.”

Although El had killed many people, it was completely different to stand over a kneeling man and watch a bullet rip the life from his body. The gun shot was so much louder, the blood so much redder, accusing her of murder. _You’re ready for the next step, Eleven. You’re a killer._

Beverly secured the gun and pushed it into her waistband, grabbed El’s hand and pulled her outside to the motorcycle. She was talking, but El didn’t listen to her. That man had been full of hope, had done everything to save his life and they had killed him. She shouldn’t feel so bad, he wouldn’t have thought twice about killing Beverly, but… they were supposed to be the good people. How could they be good people if they killed so much, how could Beverly be good people when she had killed her own father and the way she had said it, it hadn’t been an accident. She’d killed him on purpose. _Do you know them, Lucas? The good people. – I thought I did._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was looking forward to writing this chapter so much when I split them all up and somehow it was still a pain in the ass, but here it is. I hope it wasn't too confusing, but most of the cursive are things Brenner has said to El. Everything except for the last line, which is from a flashback from chapter two. 
> 
> Next up are Richie, Eddie, Mike and Dustin and then the groups will start to get together again
> 
> Come talk to me on tumlr @itchierichie


	11. Chapter 11

If he forgot about their situation for a moment and just pretended, they were a group of friends on a road trip, watching the sunrise, this was not so bad. But the illusion didn’t last long. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Mike pacing through the grass, saw Richie smoking his third cigarette in a row – unusually quiet now after both Mike and Dustin had shouted at him to shut up. It pained Eddie to see him like that, but he couldn’t think of anything to cheer him up and didn’t want to risk upsetting Mike and Dustin more.

It was the second day on the road. Yesterday they had tried to reach out to everyone else to make sure they were okay. Eddie had been especially glad to hear that Bill was okay. After Dustin had told him about Bill getting shot and bleeding quite a lot, he’d been sick with worry. What if Bill bled out and he couldn’t do anything about it? He was the one supposed to keep everyone alive, and like hell was he going to fail at his only job. Stan and Ben’s group was okay too.

But then Mike had tried reaching for El and got nothing. Even with a boost from Dustin that had tired him out so badly, he fell asleep right after, Mike hadn’t been able to reach either El or Bev. 

Whatever it meant, none of them had dared to say it. Eddie didn’t even want to think it. Bev was strong, she was the strongest person he’d ever met. There was just no way… Whatever was blocking Mike from reaching them, it was probably nothing. He just had to believe, Bev and El would be waiting for them at the camp, making fun of them for being so slow to get there.

Mike stopped his pacing to wordlessly hold his hand out to Dustin. He was still tired, the bags under his drooping eyes being the best indicator but took the hand without complains. Eddie knew the feeling well of being stretched to the limits and still trying to give more, of being unable to fail his friends.

“Nothing!”, Mike spat as he released Dustin’s hand. “Still nothing! We have to find them.”

And where would they start? The girls could be anywhere by now. And what if they did find them and all their suspicions were confirmed? Maybe he was a coward, but part of him didn’t want to know for sure.

Richie coughed, drawing Eddie’s eyes. He had avoided looking at him, because he was changing his appearance every other minute or so and other than making him dizzy, Eddie hadn’t wanted to think about what was going on in Richie’s head right now.

For the moment Richie had settled on Mikey’s face. He blew out the smoke through his nose and stubbed the cigarette out against the heel of his shoe. His eyes were fixed on something on the hood of the van though. Eddie followed his gaze and immediately jumped away from the car, when he saw the giant hornet basking in the morning sun.

“A hornet”, Richie said. A look on his face as if he were regarding a puppy. “I’ve never managed to touch one.”

“Never managed to…”, Eddie repeated, his voice too squeaky for his liking. “Are you fucking stupid? Do you know how dangerous they can be? Hornets can kill you!”

“Only when you’re allergic, Eds.”

“Nuh-uh! Hornets kill at least 50 people every year with a single sting. A SINGLE STING!”

Just when he thought Richie couldn’t do any more stupid things, he was entertaining the idea of touching a dangerous animal that could kill him, just so he could transform into it. And why? Because a bee, a butterfly, a mosquito and a fly weren’t enough? And those were only the insects he had seen Richie turn into, he was sure there were many more and he definitely didn’t need a hornet in his collection.

“I don’t think that’s true”, Richie said. Then he looked over his shoulder and winked at him. “And if something goes wrong, I have you, sweetheart.”

Eddie felt his cheeks heating up, his gaze falling to his shoes for a second, only to glare at Richie a moment later with his hands balled into fists. “That’s not the fucking point! Just don’t do stupid shit!”

“Are you worried about me?”, Richie asked. Still with that annoying grin on his face, that looked so wrong while he was in Mikey’s body, but that Eddie oddly adored when he wasn’t.

He huffed. “Go get yourself killed. See if I care to heal you.”

“Raising the stakes. I like it.” Richie winked then turned his focus back on the enormous, ugly death-bug. “I won’t get stung. You’ll see.”

Dustin had come up to them. “You should do it quick before it flies away.” Why did the guy always have this gleeful expression on his face, when they were talking about dangerous situations? He had been damn near ecstatic at the idea of Bev throwing him through the air.

“Don’t encourage him!”, Eddie snapped. “If you anger that thing and it attacks us, it doesn’t matter if it kills you or not, because I will fucking strangle you!”

Richie flashed him a dirty grin. “Didn’t know you were into kinky shit like that. You can strangle me any time you want, babe.”

Eddie spluttered, unintelligible words spilling from his mouth as he couldn’t decide if he wanted to scream at Richie for being gross or tell him how fucking wrong he was. Heat spread first to his cheeks and then to his entire body, turning him as red as the shirt he was wearing. There was no good comeback from this embarrassment. Richie was cackling now, it made Eddie’s stomach flop with anger. “Fuck off!”, he muttered, crossing his arms in front of his chest and walking away. “Go get yourself killed, asshole!”

“Aw, come on”, Richie shouted. “It was just a bi-…”

He was cut off by Dustin shrieking. “Get it, Richie! It’s flying away.”

Which was all Eddie needed to hear to start running. No way was he getting stung by a hornet because of Richie’s bullshit. When he felt he’d reached a safe distance, he turned around. Dustin was still standing by the van, watching, what Eddie assumed was the hornet and whatever insect Richie had turned into to touch it. He couldn’t really tell from where he was standing.

The whole thing didn’t last very long. A minute at most and then Richie turned into himself half-way in the air and landed in a crouch. _Of course, he does the superhero landing_. Eddie grumbled, and met Richie’s cocky smile with the biggest scowl he could muster.

“Awesome!”, Dustin said, patting Richie on the back. Only to scream again and run away, when he realized the hornet was still there. Seeing him run aimlessly through the field with his arms waving over his head, filled Eddie with that certain satisfaction that can only be achieved by proving a point.

Richie swore loudly and clapped a hand to his neck. Oddly enough this didn’t fill Eddie with the same satisfaction as watching Dustin freaking out over the hornet.

“Holy mother of shits! This hurts like a motherfucker!” Richie was now rubbing his neck while hopping from one leg to the other. Like an idiot, who didn’t know the first thing about being poisoned. He was really making sure it was circulating through his whole body, killing him faster.

Ignoring the potential danger of the angry hornet, Eddie dashed towards him, grabbed him by the elbows and pulled him down to get a better look at his neck. “Stop that! You’ll only make it worse”, he hissed.

“No offense, but I really don’t think that’s possible. It already stung me.”

“I told you it was a stupid idea.”

Richie’s neck had already started to swell, and his skin was red and hot under Eddie’s fingertips. He really was lucky, Eddie could heal him, but he would probably have done it even without Eddie here to save him. That was just the kind of idiot he was. Eddie placed his palm softly on the worst of the swelling and concentrated on making Richie feel better. It was just a bit of warmth and energy flowing from his hand and then Richie was sighing softly. He turned his head slightly, so he could look at Eddie out of the corner of his eyes, his lips curled into a warm smile.

“Thank you, Eddie”, he mumbled. His voice was low, the words only meant for Eddie to hear. It almost made his anger fade away. Almost.

He tore his gaze away from the spray of freckles covering Richie’s nose and stepped away from him. “Next time I’m not going to heal you.”

Richie slung an arm around his shoulders. “Now we both know that’s not true. You always say that.”

Eddie shrugged him off. “Well this time I mean it.”

“Whatever you say, Spaghetti Boy.”

“Are you done with your bullshit?” He had completely forgotten about Mike. He was still sitting in the grass where they’d left him, but the worried creases on his forehead had been replaced by a glare that – if Mike’s powers allowed it – would’ve killed them on the spot. “You think now is the time to mess around like that? This is serious!”

“Right, because sitting on our asses and moping around is really going to help El and Bev”, Richie said.

“At least I’d be able to concentrate if you’d just shut up and stopped trying to get us caught by ASHA.”

“We’re being too loud?” Richie laughed, spread his arms and spun around in the field. “Who’s going to fucking hear us, Mike? Do you think the grass is crawling with ASHA spies?”

“Why not? They always find us. It’s just a matter of time. They already found El and Beverly.”

Dustin looked around them, squinting to see if there was anyone coming towards them. Eddie doubted it. They hadn’t seen a single car since last night, which he thought was a good thing, until he realized that Richie hadn’t looked at a map once since they left home, and they were most likely completely lost. But still… better lost than having to deal with ASHA.

“What do you want us to do, Mike?”, Dustin asked.

Richie rolled his eyes. “Drive up to ASHA headquarters and demand they give the girls back as if they wouldn’t kill them the moment they had the chance.”

That was the first time any of them had said it out loud, although Eddie was sure they had all been thinking it. Saying it made it more real. The thought that he might never see Bev again, made him sick. It wasn’t helped by his brain filling in the uncertainties with all the horrible ways they could’ve killed her.

Mike had sprung to his feet. “They wouldn’t! They need them!”

Richie seemed completely unfazed by his brother screaming in his face. “Yeah? What for? They already have hundreds of Supers.”

“Not like El.”

“Just because you’re in love with her doesn’t make her any more special than the rest of us.”

Mike’s arms remained by his sides, but Eddie noticed he was clenching his fists, his knuckles turning white. It wouldn’t be the first time someone hit Richie in the face because he didn’t know when to shut up. Did he even know how unnecessarily cruel he was being right now?

“Richie.” Eddie just wanted him to shut up. It didn’t matter if he was right or not. It didn’t matter if they were all being naïve. He’d rather believe his friends were alive somewhere instead of thinking about the possibility that they weren’t.

“What? She’s not. None of us are special. None of us mean shit to them! To anyone.”

“Beep beep, Richie.”

Eddie could tell there was more he wanted to say by the way Richie held his gaze, and for a moment he thought Richie might just ignore him and go on until Mike would eventually punch him and escalate the whole thing. But then he stepped away from his brother.

He shook his head, added something under his breath that Eddie couldn’t hear and walked back to the van.

Dustin patted his shoulder. “Thanks, man. A fight is the last thing we need right now.”

Eddie nodded, without taking his eyes off Richie, who pushed a cigarette between his lips, but then just left it dangling there without lighting it. Eddie wanted to go over to him and give him a hug, he just felt like they both needed one right now, but something held him back. Richie probably wouldn’t like it, he’d probably push him away.

Dustin moved past him and stood next to Mike instead. “You know he didn’t mean any of that shit, right?”

“Do I? I barely know the guy. For all I know he meant every word.”

“It’s Richie. He never means what he says.”

“Maybe.”

“Don’t be a dick about it.” Dustin held out his hand. “Do you want to try again?”

Thank God for Dustin. Eddie didn’t know how much of Mike talking shit about Richie he could’ve taken, even if he knew they were both just stressed and angry. Mike was the last person Richie needed to hear stuff like that from. He hadn’t really told Eddie – when did Richie ever come right out and say how he felt? – but he knew how much it meant to Richie to have Mike around.

This time Mike didn’t pull away in frustration as fast as he had the other times. After a moment there was even a relieved smile. Eddie’s body tensed, every muscle ripe with anticipation. That meant they were okay, right? He reached them? It was hard to read Mike’s face as he stood next to Dustin, eyes closed, expression changing every second. Eddie looked to Dustin for help, but he only shrugged.

Sensing something was going on, Richie came back. When he reached up to plug the unlit cigarette from his lips, his elbow brushed Eddie’s arm and momentarily drew his attention away from Mike.

“Change of plans”, Mike said, when he finally let go of Dustin’s hand.

“Are they okay?” The words came out of all their mouths almost at the same time.

“I think so.” Mike told them about the girls’ run in with ASHA, about how Bev was wearing a power-suppressing bracelet that made it impossible for Mike to reach her and how El had been attacked and had only been able to communicate with him now that the effects had worn off. He told them about ASHA tracking El and how they couldn’t meet up with the others until the chip was removed. “El thinks she knows where it is, but they need you there to heal her. It’s a difficult spot, she says.”

That meant they had to meet up with them before they reached the camp. It meant that they would be on ASHA’s radar again, that he would be in greater danger of being caught. There were plenty of things he’d rather do, but this was his one job, the one thing he contributed to the group. Eddie nodded. “Okay. Where are they?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see Mike is okay... for now. I'm sorry it took so long and that this is kinda short, but I didn't really have anything planned for this group other than a bit of Reddie. We'll see more of them next chapter when they meet up with Bev and El


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of the group reunite, El gets rid of her chip and Mike and Richie stop fighting

The freezing water did nothing to calm his nerves, but Bill couldn’t get himself to move. He couldn’t even say what had made him go into the lake in the middle of October to begin with. They’d been the first to arrive at the camp, and almost a whole day had gone by. The sun was setting over the treetops on the opposite side of the lake and still no sign of the others.

Michael had checked in with Will via his telekinetic powers two days ago. It had been a relief to hear he was save after Will had shared his vision with them. And Stan was save, too. He shouldn’t have let them split up, and once Stan got here, he’d make damn sure that never happened again. But Michael hadn’t been able to reach Bev and El when he last reached out and since then they hadn’t heard from him either. Bill wasn’t an expert on powers, especially powers that weren’t his own, but he was sure the only explanation for Michael’s power failing was that something had happened to the girls. He hadn’t felt the familiar tuck behind his navel that warned him about approaching danger or of a loved one being in danger, but maybe it had only been a faint sensation because of the distance and he hadn’t noticed because he’d been on the verge of just turning his truck around and trying to look for the others the whole time anyway. What if something happened to them and he’d had a chance to help them, but ignored it? He let them down.

Will and Mike were sitting by the truck somewhere behind him, Mike asleep in the grass and Will calmly sketching something. How did he do it? He’d been so sure of Michael’s death the other day and now he was just enjoying himself with the art supplies Bill kept in his truck? How did they both do it? Every fibre of his body was tense, and he had the feeling that he was close to losing it if he didn’t get a release soon. They were just sitting and waiting, and Bill hated to be idle, especially if his friends were in danger, or in Bev and El’s case already…

He kicked at the freezing water that reached up to his calves.

“They’ll be here soon.” Mike’s voice was low and only barely audible to Bill. He wasn’t talking to him, neither of them had tried talking to him for the past few hours and Bill was grateful for that. There was nothing to say.

When Will agreed with him, his voice betrayed his uncertainty. There was a short silence, followed by hushed voices. Maybe they thought he was too caught up in his thoughts that he wouldn’t hear them, but come on… He was standing thirty feet away at best and there was no other sound around, but the birds singing and leaves dancing.

“Maybe you should talk to him”, Will suggested.

“I wouldn’t know what to say to him.”

“You will.” Will seemed very confident in that, Bill had his doubts. “Just go over there and be his friend.”

“Alright, but if he pulls me in, I expect you to save me from drowning.”

“You can’t swim?”

“Maybe I just want to be your damsel in distress, Will.”

He heard Will make a strangled sound as if he got something stuck in his throat, then footsteps fast approaching and then… Bill was already bracing himself for a well-meaning but utterly pointless conversation with Mike, when the sound of an engine blended in with the whispers of the wind.

The bus was steering off the gravelly road that led up to the cabins and headed towards them. It took Bill a moment to process that it was Max behind the wheel, and in the seat next to her: Stan!

He jumped out of the lake and stumbled towards the bus even though his feet had gone completely numb in the freezing water. Once or twice he tripped and almost fell, but he didn’t care. Stan was here!

The bus hadn’t even come to a complete halt, when the door flew open and Stan started running towards him, crashing into him like rocket. The wind was knocked out of his lungs and he would’ve fallen if it hadn’t been for Stan’s firm embrace. It had only been three days, but it felt like they hadn’t seen each other in weeks. But here he was, back in his arms. He inhaled the familiar scent and buried his face deeper in the crook of Stan’s neck.

“I was so worried about you”, Stan mumbled.

“I’m fine.”

Stan took a step back. His hands came up to cup Bill’s face and tilted it to the side to get a better look at where the bullet had grazed him. He didn’t say anything but judging by the tight line his mouth had turned into, he was less than pleased.

“It’s no big deal”, Bill tried to assure him. “Will p-p-patched me up.” He had almost forgotten about it to be honest. Except for an annoying itch, he could hardly feel it. Will said, he’d probably get a nasty scar from it, but Bill really couldn’t care less about that.

“I saw you bleed like a pig, Bill. What happened to your shield?”

_“You’re doing great.” Stan’s voice came softly from behind him as he passed by. Bill could almost feel it, when he slipped out of the shield and left his protection. The images of the other night, of Stan bleeding in Ben’s arms, how he’d been convinced he’d lost Stan, jumped to the front of his mind. It felt like someone had punched him in the throat. He took quick, deep breaths but didn’t feel like the air actually reached his lungs, and everything was spinning. Dustin’s face next to him was a blur as he spun around, trying to figure out where Stan had gone._

_There was a sudden burning sensation just underneath his eye and right cheek, followed by something warm trickle down his face._

He’d lost control. He’d gone into a full-blown panic over Stan leaving his protection, and if it hadn’t been for Mike throwing himself between him and the bullets, he would be dead now.

“I c-c-c-couldn’t k-keep it up”, he said. “There was too much g-g-going on.”

Stan’s face softened, and Bill felt slightly better about lying. He couldn’t tell him the truth. He had to figure out a way to deal with his fear on his own, so he wouldn’t completely lose his head when his friends weren’t around, but this was his own burden. Stan didn’t have to shoulder this one too.  

He tried for a smile and found it came easily enough. “I missed you.”

Bending down slightly, he caught Stan’s lips in a kiss and slid his hands under Stan’s jacket, revelling in the warmth. For the first time since they split he could relax. His mind stopped racing for once and he could breathe, the tension faded. Right now, nothing was as important as the boy in his arms.

He tried to ignore their friends and savour this moment a little longer, but Max especially was hard to drown out. “Enough of that!”, she shouted. “You can devour each other later.”

Bill wished he could put up a shield around him and Stan and hide from all of them, but the moment was ruined. He rolled his eyes at Stan, expecting to find the same annoyance on his face. Instead Stan flipped her off, but he was grinning all the same. Maybe it was just his frayed nerves and the disappointment that Stan didn’t seem to mind, but it seemed like something about him had changed. Bill pushed his hands deep in his pockets, turned away from Stan and made his way over to the rest of his friends.

He was relieved to see them all back safe, but it reminded him that they still hadn’t heard anything about Bev and El, and it made his anxiety flood back in. Had Michael not heard from them yet? If he had, he would’ve told Will, right? And what about their group? Maybe Michael hadn’t reached out again because something had happened to them after all. He liked to believe that Richie always found a way out of a sticky situation and Eddie could fix everything, but ever since Will had shared his vision with them, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

When he reached them, Ben gave him a short but bone-crushing hug, then immediately turned pink when he let go. Bill patted his shoulder. “Good to see you, Ben.” He hadn’t minded the hug at all, in fact he would’ve liked it to last a little longer, just to know Ben was back and save.

Not knowing how to greet Max and Lucas, he just nodded at them. They had a weird relationship, Bill decided, only knowing each other for close to two weeks and still he felt like they belonged to their group forever now. He couldn’t see them splitting up again.

Max gestured to his face. “You okay?”

“Fine.” He brushed the bandage lightly, then picked at the tape keeping it in place. Sometimes he thought the tape was itching more than the healing wound.

Will came over to swat his hand away, then played it off as him wanting to greet Ben all along. “He got lucky. The bullet only grazed him.”

“Have you heard anything from El and Beverly?”, Lucas asked.

“The last time Mike spoke to me, he hadn’t been able to reach them”, Max said.

For a moment Bill met Ben’s eyes and saw so much hope and desperation there, that he had to look away as he shook his head. Ben was probably scared out of his mind about Bev. It surprised Bill how calm he seemed, if it had been Stan, he would’ve tried to launch a search party immediately or gone off on his own if he had to.

The silence that followed was heavy with all the speculations about what could’ve happened to the girls, but nobody wanted to put them into words. Stan wriggled a hand into Bill’s coat pocket and he gripped it tightly. If something happened to them, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. He had gotten lazy, should’ve seen the signs earlier. Maybe if he’d just paid more attention to his power, they would’ve had more time and they wouldn’t have had to split up to get away. Or he would’ve been able to sense Bev was in danger and they could’ve helped her and El. He’d let all of them down, just like he had…

“Why this place?”, Lucas asked. He was scanning the camp, his eyes locking onto the woods on the other side of the lake. His face darkened when realization set in. “Why? There’s an ASHA lab just past those trees.”

“You make it sound closer than it is”, Ben said. He was looking at the woods with unease now, probably replaying their escape from ASHA at this exact spot two years ago.

“It’s close enough!”

“Wait”, Will said. “Is this where we picked up you and El?”

“Somewhere around here.” Lucas, Will and Max were looking around them now as if they had been led into a trap. As if ASHA was going to jump out of hiding at any point now. “I don’t like this. We should leave.”

“This is the spot!”, Bill said, unable and unwilling to hide his annoyance. They hadn’t decided on the camp as a point to regroup on a whim. They knew what they were doing. And leaving now would help nobody. How would they find the others then? “This is where the o-o-o-others will c-c-come to find us. Yes, there’s an ASHA l-l-lab close by. That’s exactly why they w-won’t expect us to b-b-be here.”

It wasn’t ideal, he knew that, but this was the place they had all agreed on and Bill had a feeling his theory was right. If you don’t want someone to find you, you usually don’t run towards them.

“I hope you’re right about that”, Max said.

Lucas crossed his arms. “I just want it noted, that I think that’s stupid and I don’t like it.”

* * *

 

He leaned forward in his seat, his clasped hands tugged tightly between his legs. “That must be it.”

“Are you sure?”, Richie asked, motioning to the empty fields outside. “You don’t think it’s one of the other white farm houses with Bev’s bike parked outside?”

Mike rolled his eyes at him. Why did he have to be so damn annoying all the time? Being in the front seat with him had only become bearable because he had stopped insisting that Beverly and El were dead. His jokes about ASHA storming the building while they were in the middle of “cutting into their property” and instantly killing all of them, hadn’t been much better though.

Richie parked his van in front of the barn next to Beverly’s motorcycle. He was wearing his own face for a change. Maybe he had worn himself out by going through so many different forms on their way here. Dustin had challenged him to show him his whole repertoire, and it had shut Richie up long enough for Mike’s wish to strangle him to disappear.

As soon as the car stopped, Mike jumped out, the others close on his heels. It felt like he was at the front door in no time, but before he could push it open, El was there and threw herself in his arms. Although he knew they weren’t save yet and the worst part was still ahead of them, he felt his worries drop away. El was here. She was alive and save, and he just knew everything would be okay from now on. They’d get rid of the damn chip and finally be free of ASHA. They wouldn’t be able to find them anymore.

“Mike.”

He buried his face in her curls and took a deep breath. “I was so scared”, he admitted. “Are you hurt?”

She stepped back, shaking her head. “No.” But her eyes were big and round as she looked at him, ‘ _not yet’_ they seemed to say.

Richie, Dustin and Eddie squeezed past them into the house. The scared look on her face was replaced by a happy smile, when Dustin scooped her up and gave her a twirl. “You had us worried, El”, he said, when he put her down again, then, with a shit-eating grin, added. “Mike even made Richie turn into you, so he could see your face one last time.”

Even though Dustin made it up, Mike felt his whole face grow hot. “Shut the fuck up! I did not!”

He pushed the snickering Dustin away, so he could take El’s hand. “I didn’t”, he repeated, now so low only she could hear. “I didn’t think you were dead. I think I would know.” He’d been afraid for her, but he’d known deep in his heart that she hadn’t been gone. He just had a feeling that something fundamental would shift if she was gone and he would know. He just would.

She gave his hand a short squeeze, a sign she understood, that she felt the same way. This was what he liked about her so much. They understood each other without many words, without him using his powers. It was just that easy.

“What is this fuckery!”

Richie’s voice drew his attention back to their surroundings. They were standing in a living room, that may have been a bit dusty but still seemed lived in. The farm was by no means abandoned and it made him wonder why the girls had picked this place. They hadn’t knocked the inhabitants out and tied them up somewhere, had they?

His brother was holding Beverly’s arm and pulled at the large, silver bracelet, but it didn’t come off. It reminded Mike a little of shackles they put on slaves in the movies, only this one fit Beverly’s wrist so snugly it wouldn’t even budge a little bit.

“Stop that, Richie”, she said. “We already tried everything.”

“But we have to get it off!” Richie seemed about ready to turn into a tiger and try to bite the bracelet off, so Beverly was wise to pull her arm back.

“You need a thing for it”, El said. “A special… magnet, I think.”

“And where do we get that?”, Eddie asked.

“Only ASHA has those. It’s either that or cutting off my hand, and I’m not prepared to lose any body parts today”, Beverly said. Mike was sure, the bracelet bothered her more than she let on. It sure would bother him to have his powers supressed, especially by ASHA. But maybe Beverly was used to it; she was a number in their lab before after all. “Maybe Ben can make me one. We’ll figure it out later, now we have more important stuff to do.”

El’s grip on his hand tightened slightly and got to be almost painful, when everyone looked at her. Mike could tell Beverly was worried for her just by the look on her face, but he needed to know for sure, so he let his power reach out. As always it took him a moment to make sense of what was going on, but Beverly’s thoughts were pretty straightforward and easy to read. _What if it’s too deep? What if Eddie can’t heal her fast enough? She could die._

Eddie’s thoughts mingled with Beverly’s and his self-doubt didn’t do anything to calm Mike’s nerves. He didn’t even know where the chip was in El’s body and was already freaking out about it. He’d hoped at least Eddie would be sure he could do this, that maybe they’d done stuff like this a million times before.

“Are we doing it in here?”, Dustin asked. He’d gotten to the same conclusion that this house was still lived in and it wouldn’t do to leave a bloody mess in the living room for the owners to come back to. As if this was at all important right now.

“Upstairs”, El said. She started walking and Mike had no choice but to follow her. They all shuffled up the stairs and into a bedroom. The furniture and décor was a bit old-timey. Mike imagined an elderly couple living here, all kids already moved out. Maybe that was where they were now. On holiday or visiting their kids somewhere. Someone had stripped the bed and spread towels over it instead. They really had just sat here and waited for them, hadn’t they? A bit like waiting for a slaughtering.

El let go of his hands, to grab the hem of her sweatshirt and pulled it over her head. She never really had a problem with nudity. When they first met she had discarded her lab clothes in front of all of them without a second thought, but he’d thought they’d gotten over that. Mike quickly grabbed her shirt to hold it out in front of her chest, that was only covered by her bra now.

Richie sniggered. “Is this why you brought us here? Are we having an orgy?”

“Beep Beep, Richie”, Beverly said. She came over and took the shirt out of his hands. “We’re not exactly sure where the chip is, but we found this scar right here.” She gently turned El around to show them a small, white line between her shoulders, right on her spine.

_I’m going to kill her_! One thought of Eddie’s that was distinct from the rest and then it became a bigger mess, as Mike could hear and feel him spiralling into a panic. He should probably reel his powers back in for his own good.

“I always had this scar”, El said. “I thought it was from a fight. Beverly says it might be the chip.”

Beverly shrugged. “We looked everywhere and while there are other scars, this one looks the neatest, like a surgical scar. And El can’t remember where this one came from.”

“So this is your best bet? But you don’t know for sure?”, Dustin asked.

Mike was happy somebody else thought the same thing. “We can’t just cut into El on a hunch! What if you’re wrong? And that’s her spine for fucks sake! You’re going to kill her or make her a quadriplegic.”

“That’s why Eddie is here”, Richie said. And Mike would’ve been comforted by that and how confident Richie was in his powers, if Eddie himself wasn’t completely convinced he was going to kill El.  

“What’s a quadriplegic?”, El asked, but her question went under in the discussion about what approach was the best.

“Richie, I don’t know…”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“If we can’t be sure, it has to stay in! It isn’t worth it!”

“No, we have to get it out! She knows the risk and she’s willing to take it.”

“What’s quadriplegic?”

“I don’t care! We’re not doing it!”

“If she keeps it, we’re all in danger! Fuck, we’re in danger now! ASHA could show up here at any point.”

“I agree! We have to get it out!”

“Mike!”, El’s voice suddenly cut through the rest of them and shut them all up. He’d talked over her as if she wasn’t here.

“I’m sorry”, he mumbled.

“Mike, what’s a quadriplegic?”, she asked again.

“It’s someone who can’t move their arms and legs.”

Her tongue darted out, licking her lower lip. He could tell she understood him, but he was unsure if the prospect scared her or she thought he was a fool. “And you think I’m…”

“No”, Richie cut in. He stepped forward, and with him came his thoughts. They had been dark and unbearable, so Mike had stopped listening in – that and he still remembered how mad Richie hat gotten at him for using his powers on him – but now all he seemed to care about was El. He didn’t want her to be afraid, wanted to help her and above all he had complete trust in Eddie and his abilities, trusted Beverly’s judgement about the chip and trusted that El was strong enough to endure it. “You’re going to be fine, El. Mike is just worried because he cares about you, but we all know that you’ll be fine, right?”

Richie looked at the others and one by one they nodded in agreement.

Dustin snorted a laugh and threw an arm around El, but then seemed to remember she was barely clothed and stepped away from her quickly, a hue of pink in his cheeks. “Yeah, you’re one tough cookie.”

Still unsure, her eyes found his. He knew that his opinion mattered, mattered more than anyone else’s. Maybe he couldn’t stop her from going through with this craziness, but she needed him to agree nonetheless. He smiled. It was Richie’s trust that made him say: “Yeah, you are.” If someone was so convinced, so confident in his friends’ abilities, could he really be wrong? He decided to trust in Richie.

“Okay”, El said. She climbed onto the bed and laid down on her stomach while Beverly moved to the bedside table where the utensils lay ready. Somehow, they’d gotten their hands on a scalpel, there were some forceps, antiseptic, but no other first-aid supplies. They didn’t need them if they had Eddie.

Beverly held the scalpel out to him. “How do you want to do this?”

Eddie held up his hands. “One of you has to do it. I can’t cut and heal her at the same time.”

“But you’re the one who knows about this stuff”, she said.

“I don’t, Bev. I’ve read some books, I took a first-aid class, but that’s it.” There was a shift in his posture, as if he had finally gotten with the program. They were going to do it, and suddenly he was in charge. “You have steady hands, you’ll cut. Richie and Dustin will hold her down and Mike… try to keep her calm.”

He doubted there was anything he could do to keep El calm, while they cut into her spine without anaesthetics. They couldn’t have found just some simple pain killers? Settling down by her head, Mike was just glad he didn’t have to look at it. He wanted to take her hand, but with Richie and Dustin holding her arms down that wasn’t an option. Beverly was sitting on El’s lower back and Eddie hovered next to her, ready to start healing her at any moment.

El’s eyes were so big they could fall out of her head and they bore into his own as if she tried to penetrate his mind for a change. He reached out and let his fingers trail down her cheek. “You’ve got this.”

_Mike_. Her lips were still pressed tightly together, but her voice was loud and clear. It was the first time, she’d ever reached out to him like that, the first time she wanted him to use his powers on her. As soon as he did, he was flooded with her thoughts and emotions. Above all there was fear. Fear that she might die, fear that ASHA would show up, fear of becoming a quadriplegic, but mostly fear of pain. He wished he could take that from her, reassure her in any way, and felt utterly helpless that he couldn’t.

Even without seeing what was going on, he knew as soon as Beverly started cutting. El managed to keep quiet for exactly two seconds, her teeth biting down on her lip hard, but the scream wasn’t going to let itself be contained. Her body jerked, and Richie and Dustin struggled to pin her to the bed. Worriedly he watched as the bedside table started to float, the dresser on the other side of the room was shaking.

“Mike”, Dustin snapped. “Do something!”

But what? If he could take some of the pain, he would, but his powers didn’t work like that. He could feel her agony and couldn’t at the same time. Even with their minds connected like this, he was still just a bystander, he felt her experiences without being affected himself.

_You’re doing great, El. It’ll just be a moment longer._ She couldn’t form coherent thoughts anymore. The pain was too overwhelming. Her screams became muffled as she buried her face in the mattress, but she was still fighting against the other’s hold on her, the furniture was still floating. _El, I know it hurts, but you have to stop fighting. I know it’s hard, but you can do it._ If she didn’t, there was a good chance the dresser would come flying at them and if she knocked Eddie out, her chances weren’t good.

“I see it”, he heard Beverly say through gritted teeth. Part of him wanted to see, but he felt it was better if he didn’t. He lifted his gaze once, saw the strain on everyone’s faces, saw the blood soaking into the towels and quickly focused on El again.

His fingers carded gently through her curls. _I’m here. You’re not doing this alone. I’m here._ Empty words like this wouldn’t help her at all, would they? He wasn’t doing anything but experience her pain like some spectator watching gladiators fight to their death in ancient Rome. _When I was little, and I got hurt, I would always run to my mom and she would kiss it better. Most of the time Nancy would come because she heard me crying. Back then Nancy wanted to become a doctor. So she always insisted on putting the band-aids on my scrapes._ There was no real reason to him telling her this, except that he hoped his voice might distract her a little and he was stumped for other ideas. _I always complained about it, like the annoying little brother that I was. I insisted Nancy did it wrong because I wanted Mom to do it for me, but she was actually really good at it. She was gentle and thorough. Her band-aids always held a lot better than Mom’s._

For a short moment he thought his rambling had actually helped. The furniture stopped moving, Richie and Dustin relaxed, and the muffled screaming stopped, but her thoughts faded too. One moment he was bombarded with the pain and the need to get away and then she was just gone.

“El?” Being unable to shake her like he wanted to, he settled for brushing the hair out of her face. “El!”

There was no response. When he looked up, nobody was meeting his eyes. Eddie’s hands were placed on either side of the cut, stained red, his face an unreadable grimace. Beverly’s hand was steady as it guided the forceps, her other hand still clutched the scalpel, now slick with blood. Had they not noticed the change? Had they not noticed El was fading? What had gone wrong? Had Beverly cut too deep, had Eddie not healed her?

“Fuck the chip!”, he snapped. “Eddie, you have to heal her. Now!”

“I am healing her as we go.”

How was he so calm about this? Hadn’t he been the one scared of killing El in the process and now it hardly seemed to matter? Ready to push them all off her, Mike got to his feet. Somewhere in the back of his mind he of course knew that Eddie was her best bet, but he would do anything to save her right now, even fight all of his friends. She couldn’t die! Not now, not like this! Not after he had promised her, she’d be okay.

“Mike, sit down!”, Dustin hissed. He was still pressing down on El’s shoulder, as if she still needed to be held down.

“You’re killing her!”

Beverly pulled the forceps out, a small, metal object pinched between the ends. It looked almost like a pill, or a slim tic tac. “Got it.”

At the same time Richie slid his hand down to El’s neck. “I think she just fainted”, he said. His eyes held Mike’s gaze, silently telling him to calm the fuck down.

“No shit”, Eddie muttered, who was now moving his hands to rest directly on the cut. “She held on longer than I expected.”

Fainted? He sank to the floor, letting his hand rest on the top of her head again. He felt stupid, but the relief outweighed his embarrassment. Fainting was good, fainting meant Eddie could fix her up, fainting meant nothing was lost yet. And the chip was out. It had worked. It had to have worked.

He had no sense of time as he sat there and waited for it all to be over, but it felt like an eternity until Eddie finally stood up. “She’s fine”, he said. His mouth opened and closed a few times as if he wasn’t sure what to say next, then he turned on his heels and rushed out of the room.

First Richie, then Beverly followed him out. “I’ll show him to the bathroom.”

Dustin brushed his fingers over El’s back. No scar. Except for the blood, there was no evidence of an amateur surgery having taken place here. He then picked up the chip Beverly had left on the nightstand. “I’ll get rid of this. Be right back.”

A deep tiredness set itself in his bones. He could lie down next to El and sleep for days. When was the last time they’d all slept without worries? Maybe at the asylum, but that seemed ages ago now.

He kissed her forehead, then pushed himself up. As much as he wanted to rest, he knew it wasn’t the time for that yet. Trying to jostle her as little as possible, he removed the bloody towels from underneath her, not wanting her to see it, when she came too.

Just when he was done with the task, Richie slipped back into the room. His hands were clean now, and he held out a wet cloth. “Too clean her up.”

Mike took it from him, wiping carefully at El’s back to remove all the traces of blood.

“You know, Eddie did a good job”, Richie said. “You don’t have to worry about hurting her or reopening wounds or whatever.”

That wasn’t what he was worried about, or not all he was worried about. He just didn’t want El to wake up and be immediately reminded of the pain she had to go through. Ideally everything would be clean, when she did.

“Thank you”, he whispered.

“It’s just a cloth, Michelle.”

Still not a fan of the nickname, Mike couldn’t help but smile anyway. It was good to have Richie go back to his jokes – the ones that weren’t about them all getting killed – it meant the worst was over now.

“Not that.” He hesitated, not wanting to start another fight with him. He was tired of fighting. “I was… What you said to her, and… I was in your head. I know I shouldn’t have, but I… Whatever. You, your thoughts, I mean, they helped me. I needed to hear someone be optimistic about this.”

The anger, he’d expected didn’t come. Maybe Richie was tired of fighting too. “Okay. Just don’t make a habit of it.”

“I won’t.”

“Then we’re good”, Richie said, but he paused, the smile slowly fading. “Aren’t we?”

Mike was reminded of something Richie had said the other day: _None of us are special. None of us mean shit to them! To anyone._ He’d been talking about El then, and Mike had been too mad at him to see it as anything else but an attack, but now he thought Richie hadn’t just talked about ASHA and being Super. He’d been in his head before, and he’d seen the abuse Richie had had to endure from their birth parents.

Dropping the cloth on the bed, Mike walked over and hugged Richie. “We’re good”, he said, but he didn’t let go. Now that he was hugging Richie, and Richie was hugging him back, he realized how much he needed this too. “I’m sorry about…” The fighting, using his power on him without permission, not being there when they grew up, not knowing about him. The list went on and on. “I’m just sorry.”

“I’m sorry too.”

“Meeting you…is probably one of the best things that ever happened to me.” He felt silly for saying it, felt that he hadn’t found the right words and anticipated Richie to make fun of him any moment now, but he didn’t. Richie didn’t say anything, but he gripped him a little tighter.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the last group arrives at camp emotions run high. Ben makes a confession and a grave decision is made

After a long discussion if they should sleep in the cabins they’d come to the decision that it didn’t matter much if they slept in their cars or in the cabins if someone saw them trespassing here. And the beds would be warmer and more comfortable.

Ben had hardly slept, lying awake for most of the night and hoped that his friends’ even breaths would lull him to sleep too, but his mind wandered to those absent. It was hard not to think about Bev, when he usually would wander into her room at times like this. They’d stayed up late, hoping that the others would turn up but had eventually surrendered to the cold and fatigue.

Ben turned around to watch the sleeping boys in the lower bunk next to him. The beds were tiny, but Stan and Bill had still insisted to share. Despite Bill’s nervous pacing the whole evening, he’d been out like a light as soon as they’d gone to bed.

There was soft snoring coming from above him, where Mikey was sleeping. The others had picked a bed on the opposite wall, and Ben had been a bit worried for Will in the top bunk, when he saw how restless he slept. He didn’t want the boy to fall and hit his head. Max and Lucas slept curled up together just like they had done on the bus and seemed to be in a competition who could snore louder.

It was pretty clear, he wasn’t going to fall asleep again any time soon, so Ben grabbed his shoes and jacket and tiptoed out of the cabin. He sat on the stoop of the cabin and leaned his head against the banister.

Dawn hadn’t fully arrived yet. The world was still dark and asleep, and Ben wished he could be too. At least if he was asleep, he wouldn’t have to worry about his friends and what might’ve happened to them. What if that day at the asylum was the last time he’d see them? What if they never found out what had happened to them? What if… if he never told Bev how he felt?

He thought about the poems in his desk drawer, they were probably nothing but ashes now. Would it have been so hard to leave one of them on her pillow? It wasn’t even about making her fall in love with him too, he just wished she knew, that she was loved, and how much she meant to him. It would be nice to have his feelings reciprocated of course, but in the big scheme of things, it didn’t matter. He was happy just loving her and being her friend, happy to make her smile and laugh and hold her when she needed a hug. But he wanted her to know how important she was. Hopefully, he’d still have a chance to tell her.

He must’ve dozed off eventually, because when he opened his eyes the sun was coming out and coloured the sky in faint golden hues. Someone else must’ve been awake judging by the sounds coming from inside the cabin, but what had woken him up was the engine of a motorcycle.

Bev was driving towards him at full speed with Dustin holding onto her for dear life. Richie’s van was following her at a distance, unable to keep up with her speed. All signs of tiredness fell away from him at the sight. She was here. He still had a chance to tell her.

The cabin door burst open as the others spilled out. Will was just pulling his sweater over his head as he stumbled forward, Stan seemed to still be half-asleep as Bill dragged him along.

Bev pulled the bike around at the last moment, sending dirt and grass flying, and Dustin, who otherwise was so open to adrenaline, looked a little pale when he got off the bike. Not that Ben paid him much attention, not when Bev was right there, every freckle in its place, smiling brightly.

He was the first to reach her, but soon everyone else was draping themselves around them too. The others moved on to the Dustin and the guys in the van, but Ben couldn’t get himself to let go of her just yet. He’d been half-convinced that he’d never get to see her again and he was going to enjoy this moment for as long as she would let him.

“I’m okay, Ben”, she giggled. “I still have all my arms and legs.” But despite her words she didn’t pull away either. “Did you get here alright?”

It didn’t feel like normal small talk, he could tell she had been concerned, or maybe he just wanted to hear it like that. Either way, it was what led him to blurt: “I love you!”

It was no conscious decision to tell her. He’d always imagined it to be a bit more private. Their friends didn’t seem to have heard, but they were all still here nonetheless. He’d also thought there would be a bit more of a leadup to his confession, but it was out there now, and he couldn’t take it back even if he wanted to. He didn’t.

He didn’t even regret it, when he felt Bev tense up. She was going to turn him down now, but that was okay. It was what he had expected. He just wished it wouldn’t be a long awkward conversation.

She stepped out of his embrace and he let her go. Her face was slowly turning the same colour as her hair, her eyes were soft. Probably pity. At least she didn’t seem angry or disgusted by his confession, but then he hadn’t expected her to be. That wouldn’t be the Bev he knew.

“Ben”, she said. “I…” She glanced over her shoulder at their friends. “I need your help with something.”

When she took his hand and pulled him with her, what choice did he have but to follow? She led him towards one of the cabins a bit farther away, tried the handle but found it locked. He’d expected her to just kick in the door, then let him fix it up later, but she just stepped aside. “Could you?”

“Yeah, sure.” Lock picking had never been his strong suit, but eventually he always got it open. He bent down to rip out a few blades of grass and transformed them into lock picking tools. That was the easy part.

He worked in silence for a while, but that was okay. He was sure, she didn’t actually need help, but just wanted to give an excuse to anybody listening in for whisking him away. He could wait to hear her reasons for not loving him back, he would be fine not hearing them at all.

But Bev seemed to change her mind about waiting until they were in the cabin. Maybe out of earshot was good enough for her. “I wondered when you were going to tell me.”

He almost dropped the torsion wrench. “You knew?”

She nodded, the smile that was a mix between fondness and amusement appearing on her face. “I knew.”

He didn’t ask, why she had never mentioned anything. It was pretty clear to him, why she hadn’t.

When the lock finally clicked, and the door opened, Ben was relieved. They could get this over with. He let her go in first, but she just stood in the middle of the room until he had properly closed the door behind him again. She was as beautiful as ever, but this was the first time he understood what people meant, when they called her scary. He’d never been afraid of her, not even when she was throwing cars, boulders and whole trees in anger, but he was terrified now. Whatever she was going to say, he prayed to God it wouldn’t destroy their friendship or affect the group.

Bev didn’t say anything at all. She simply walked up to him, and his brain only processed what was happening, when he felt her lips on his. This was the last thing, he’d expected to happen. She liked him back? Bev, who was way too good for him, liked him back?

Too stunned by the turn of events, he didn’t get a chance to respond to the kiss before it ended. He was very aware of how close they still were, of her arms slung around his neck, of her breath brushing over his skin.

“Please don’t be mad at me, Ben.” Why would he be mad? He was still unable to move or say anything, but maybe that was for the best right now. “I knew you liked me and how sure you were of your feelings, and it scared me. I was so scared you would tell me and I still wouldn’t have figured out, how I felt about you.”

“Love”, he corrected. “I love you.”

She giggled. “See. This is what I mean. I’ve never been that sure about anything, and you can just say it with pure conviction.”

Her hand caressed his cheek, a touch so gentle, so sweet, he never wanted her to stop. He was unsure what she was trying to say, but he was going to let her take her time and would enjoy her touch while he could. His hands were shaking as he placed them on her hips, one step closer and there would be no more space between them.

“I’m still scared. Hurting you is the last thing I want to do, Ben. I want to try this, but I’m scared to disappoint you.”

“You’re not going to disappoint me, Bev.” How could she ever? She had never disappointed him in all the time he knew her, why would she suddenly start? And she just said she wanted to be with him. She’d essentially made him the happiest guy on earth.

She sighed and let her forehead rest against his. “I just… wish I was worthy of your love.”

He must have misheard, right? That made absolutely no sense. If someone was out of his league, it was Bev. Not the other way around. Why would she even think that?

He pulled her closer, determined to convince her that she was wrong. Her lips were softer than he’d imagined, all of this was better than he’d imagined. The way she suddenly clung to him, as if she had longed for this as much as he had. The hotness of her mouth, the sweetness of her tongue, the hand painfully twisted in his hair.

His heart was racing when they eventually broke apart. He tried to catch his breath. Bev’s cheeks were flushed, her lips red and swollen, her hair a mess, but he doubted he looked any better. “You are”, he told her, as he reached out to fix her hair. “You are, Bev.”

If not her, who else? He’d always felt like she might be the love of his life, but now he knew for sure. It was okay that she had her doubts. That didn’t matter, because he knew.

She grabbed his hands, holding them between them as she kissed him again. “I think I love you too, Ben.”

His face felt like it was on fire, and he could feel the blush creep down his neck and spread across his whole body, but who even cared anymore? Beverly Marsh was in love with him and he could die happy this instant.

They stood like this for a moment, and Ben could’ve stood here all day, but then Bev held up her arm for him to see. It was the first time he noticed the weird bracelet she wore, it reminded him of the ASHA collars. “I actually do need your help. Any chance you can get this off?”

She gave him a short rundown on what had happened to her and El after they split up, about ASHA showing up at the motel, about El being shocked and her getting the bracelet, how they managed to escape and how they pulled that chip out of El’s back. Four days away from each other and Bev had gone through years’ worth of drama. Could he hate ASHA any more?

“El says it needs the same kind of magnet like ASHA’s collars to open”, Bev said. “Do you think, you can make one of those?”

He reeled his anger back in since it was of no use to Bev right now, so he might as well save it up for the next time he came face to face with ASHA officials. He would show them then.

“I don’t know. They obviously never let me get my hands on one of them”, he said. They would supply him with all kinds of intelligence equipment and he’d seen the devices they used to activate the collars a million times, but they were careful never to let him get too close to them.

He looked around for something to transform, but except for the bunk beds the cabin was empty. Then he remembered the lock picking tools, he’d left by the door and went to fetch them. He turned the torsion wrench over in his hands a few times. It had been two years, remembering the device wasn’t easy. It had been about the size of a lighter, sleek metal just like Bev’s bracelet with a switch on the side. He knew nothing about the weight or the internal components. He knew what it was supposed to do, but not how it did that, and he feared that wouldn’t be enough.

A faint glow came from his hands as he started the transformation. He felt the form changing, while the weight stayed the same. It didn’t seem right.

Bev gasped when he opened his hands. “You did it! It looks exactly like the ones they had. Thank you, Ben.” She pecked his lips, then held out her arm so he could take the bracelet off her.

The bracelet had closed seamlessly around her wrist, so he just placed the magnet where he assumed it would open. He pressed the switch. Nothing. He tried again, but still nothing.

He hated seeing her smile falter as she realized it wasn’t working. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s… it’s okay.”

“Hey, we’re getting this thing off, don’t worry. Maybe I can get it right with Dustin’s help.” When they had combined their powers at the asylum just to see what would happen, it had removed some of the limitations. He had been able to turn small objects into much bigger ones, and the apple he’d made out of a stone had almost tasted like a real apple.

“Yeah”, Bev said, but her smile was forced. “Let’s ask him.”

It was rare that his friends asked him to make something that he couldn’t do, and of all the things it had to be this? He knew how much her power meant to Bev, how much joy she got from randomly picking them up and carrying them around, and he wanted nothing more than give it back to her. He really hoped Dustin’s help was all he needed.

The first thing they heard, when they stepped out of the cabin, hands intertwined, were the whoops and shouts from all their friends, and Ben felt himself transform into a gigantic tomato. Bev gave them the finger but only held his hand that much harder.

“Did you finally finish fucking?”, El shouted. Wait, no. There were two of her, so this could only be Richie. “We want to show Bennie some love, too.”

“Gross!”, Max said.

“Yeah, speak for yourself, Richie”, Eddie said.

Richie’s form rippled and grew until he was himself again. “Guys, who is gross now? You have all dirty minds.”

“You’re the one who put those two sentences back to back, dipshit”, Stan pointed out.

“Says the guy who complained about me making too many pauses in my speech”, Richie said. He came over to give Ben a sideways hug, then stayed there practically leaning on him. Did he ever stand up straight? Or was he just too tall for that? “It’s. for. Dramatic. Effect. Stanley.”

“And you”, Stan said, imitating Richie’s obnoxious pauses. “Are. Fucking…”

And then he just stopped. They waited for a good while for him to finish his sentence with nobody saying a word, but he didn’t.

“Annoying!”, Eddie finally said.

“I was making a point, Eddie”, Stan drawled. “You know how long he made his stupid pauses? He’d start a sentence and finish it an hour later.”

Max groaned. “You’re both fucking annoying.”

“No, Stan is just petty”, Richie said. “Apparently it’s different.”

“It isn’t to me.”

Usually Ben enjoyed his friends’ banter as long as it wasn’t about him, but there were more important things to do right now. If Dustin couldn’t help him make this right, he didn’t know what else they could do to get the bracelet off Bev.

He brushed Richie off and walked over to Dustin, holding the magnetic device out to him for inspection. “I need your help with this.”

“My help?”, Dustin asked, looking lost. “I don’t even know what that is.”

El stepped closer to inspect the device in Ben’s hands. He’d noticed before how little she cared for personal space but was now painfully aware of how close she was to him. He could feel her hair brushing against his cheek. “It’s for Bev”, she said. “For the bracelet.”

“R-r…” Ben cleared his throat and quickly put some distance between them. “Right, but it doesn’t work.”

“Okay. So what do you want me to do about it?” Dustin picked the device up, took a closer look then placed it back. “I’ve never seen one of those before.”

Ben shrugged. “I don’t know. Boost my power, see if I can get it to work if I try again.”

“Oh!” Dustin laughed. “Yeah, I can do that. Easy.”

When Ben folded his hands, Dustin placed his own on top. He wasn’t sure if it was all in his head and Dustin just had really warm hands or if he could actually feel the energy flow between them. It only lasted for a second, this transformation taking shorter than usual since the form was already correct. Now he just hoped it would work too.

This time, as he pressed the magnet to Bev’s bracelet, he sent a little prayer to God or whoever was listening. Then he pressed the switch and hoped for the best. With a faint click, the bracelet sprung apart. Bev pulled her arm away as if she had been burned and rubbed her wrist.

“Thank you!” She threw her arms around Dustin and him and pressed a kiss to Ben’s cheek, then paused for a second and kissed Dustin’s cheek too. “Thank you!”

* * *

 

After Will had shouted at them – or rather shouted at Mike – for not checking in with him, and after they had gotten rid of Bev’s stupid ASHA bracelet, most of them had filed into one of the cabins. They were designed for twelve kids and with all of them in there it was quite cramped. Bev and Richie stayed outside to smoke, El had fallen asleep as soon as she had curled up on one of the lower bunks with her head in Mike’s lap and the rest was lying or sitting on the other beds.

“What do we do now?”, Eddie asked. He was on his stomach in one of the top bunks but let himself hang over the edge to get a better look at Bill and Stan in the bunk below.

“What we always do”, Lucas said. “Stay as long as we can, then move on.”

“We could find a new place for all of us”, Ben suggested. “Maybe not an asylum or hospital this time.”

Eddie nodded. “Yeah, maybe not.”

Bill snorted. “It was not hau-haunted.”

“Things moved on their own, Bill! There were weird sounds at night.”

“That was just Richie messing with you”, Stan said. “And it was an abandoned building that was close to collapsing, it’s allowed to make strange noises.”

Eddie scoffed and muttered something under his breath, clearly not accepting Stan’s excuses. Now Dustin was even more bummed they had to abandon the asylum. He’d loved it there, and he would’ve loved it even more to go ghost hunting, but even if it survived the fire Stan started, it would be foolish to return there. 

“We could start scouting for a new place tomorrow”, Mikey said.

“And then what?”, Max asked. “We stay somewhere else for what? A few weeks? Months? And then ASHA finds us again and we do it all again?”

Will sat next to her on the top bunk, their feet dangling in the air. “Yeah?”

“Aren’t you sick of it?”

“You said yourself there is no place we can be in peace”, Stan pointed out. “We’ll always have to run and hide.”

“I don’t want to live like this forever”, Mike said. He was looking down at El sleeping in his lap, then up at them again. “When I left Hawkins with Will, I never thought I’d be away for this long. I want to go back some day. I want to… I want my family to know El and Richie. And I’m tired of waiting for that day. Aren’t you?”

At the mention of his name, Richie popped his head in through the open door. “You’re moving fast, Michelle. I don’t think we’re there yet.”

Bev handed him her cigarette, then pushed him out of the way. “We can’t just go on like before. We were on the road for months before we got to the asylum. Richie gave them wrong leads about Ben and me all the time, but now we’re all on the radar. You should’ve seen their faces, when I mentioned Ben. It was like Christmas had come early. They’ll want to find us at any cost.”

“But you said, you took care of them”, Dustin said. He’d played the whole thing over in his head a dozen times since he’d heard the story, and he still wasn’t sure if he was in awe or scared. They’d taken out eight ASHA agents, not even using their powers for some of them. It wasn’t so much the killing part that scared him, he’d seen El, Lucas and Max kill people before when they’d gone head to head with ASHA. It was the cold-bloodedness of the interrogation and shooting someone in the face who was no threat to them anymore. He hadn’t thought Bev had it in her. He didn’t think any of his friends had it in them.

She didn’t meet their eyes, when she nodded. “Who knows if they were bugged or someone managed to call something in though? Don’t they always know more than we think?”

“What do you w-w-w-want to do, Bev?”

“Fight them”, she said simply, as if it was that easy.

Across the room, Ben’s face lost all its colour. “Fight them?”, he repeated. “You can’t find ASHA. That’s suicide.”

“ASHA is a government organisation. For every agent you take down, there’s another one sprouting up”, Lucas said.

“Then we burn it all to the ground”, Bev said.

Richie flicked the cigarette butt away and threw an arm around her shoulders. “Hear, hear. Don’t you love this girl?”

“That would just perpetuate the image the public already has of us”, Mikey said, who’d been completely silent until now. “They would hate us more, fear us more. That’s the opposite of what you want.”

“Don’t you want to fight ASHA, too?”, Richie asked. “After what they did to you?”

Dustin didn’t know what ASHA had done to Mikey, he didn’t know any of their backstory, only that Bev and Ben had been lab rats as well, but he didn’t need to know. The fact that all of them were out here and had been for years was evidence enough that ASHA had taken something from all of them. He had never regretted his decision to go with Mike and Will, but he wished he could’ve contacted his mother at some point and let her know that he was okay, that he missed her and that he was going to come back to her eventually.

“I don’t want to fight”, Mikey said. “But I want to expose them, show people who the real monsters are.”

“Good luck with that”, Dustin muttered. ASHA was good at covering their tracks and spinning the truth in their favour. What could they do to stop them? They were just kids, none of which had finished school, some were officially declared dead, others had never existed in the first place. Nobody would believe them.

The mood in the room had shifted. All the happiness and relief of being back together and nobody being badly hurt had been replaced by the hopelessness, they all knew too well. It was the reason why they had never spoken of anything but the immediate future, because they knew there wasn’t anything worth planning beyond that. It was a bleak outlook on life, but it was what had kept them sane. Dustin raked his brain for a joke to get his friends back on track. He hated this tension. And what about Richie? The boy could never shut up and now he was just hanging on Bev’s shoulder and seemed to be deep in thoughts. The one time they needed a joke the most.

“Hey Will”, Mike called after a while.

“Yeah?”

“That vision you had. The one you drew with the boy with the ASHA collar. You were in the ASHA lab, weren’t you?”

“I wasn’t”, Will said. He carefully climbed down the bunk bed to look at his friend. “I was someone else. But yes, they were in the ASHA lab.”

“And what were they doing?”

“Opening doors. Freeing the other kids, I suppose. Someone wouldn’t let me open that door though.”

“Do you think that was us?”, Max asked, understanding where Mike was going with this.

He shrugged. “We are close to a lab right now. The lab we know the most about.”

“And if we free the other kids”, Lucas said. “There are more to back up our claims.”

“We could show them”, Ben said. He walked over to the closest bed, grabbed the pillow and with a few strokes of his hands transformed it into a camera. A big one, like the ones TV reporters used. “We could show them the lab, the cells. They will have to believe us then.”

Mikey took the camera from him to get a closer look. “That is…” He looked at his friends. “I think we should do it.”

“You want us to go into the lab?”, Eddie asked incredulous. “That’s insane!”

“Aw, Eds, where did your sense for adventure go?”, Richie said. He climbed halfway up the bed to pinch his cheeks, but Eddie swatted his hands away.

“Of course, you’re in favour of this insanity.”

Richie shrugged. “What can I say? I’m always down for shit that could get us all killed.”

“Yeah, so I think you’re not allowed to have a fucking say in this!”

“We should do it.” El’s voice was soft and sleepy, but it seemed she had been awake for the important part of the conversation. She sat up slowly and brushed the curls out of her face.

“Are you sure?”, Mike asked.

When she nodded, Bev stepped into the middle of the room. “Then let’s vote. Everyone in favour of exposing ASHA.” She raised her hand; seven more hands went up. “Against.” Only Eddie raised his hand at first, then more slowly Bill did too. Ben, Stan and Will hadn’t voted for either option, but it hardly mattered with eight of them in favour it was definitely happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Benverly finally happened!   
> And 13 people in one scene is a lot to handle and apparently just ends up being confusind dialogue. sorry.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some people are happier than others with the group contemplating going into the ASHA lab and they deal with it in different ways.

“Why are you like this?”, Eddie asked as he tried to pull his hand away, but Richie had him in an iron grip.

Richie grinned at him over his shoulder. “Irresistible? I don’t know, Eds. You tell me.”

Eddie rolled his eyes at him. “You know what I mean.”

This was serious. They hadn’t been in this much danger since… Well, Eddie had never been in this much danger ever. ASHA showing up at the asylum had been bad, but now his friends wanted to go into a lab and expose ASHA and get into even more trouble. And Richie even thought it was funny?

“And where the fuck are we going anyway?”

After the vote, Richie had grabbed him without explanation and dragged him outside, and Eddie didn’t mind being away from the others for a while, but he’d really like to know what Richie was up to. Knowing him it was some bullshit, like touching a huge ass wasp and get stung to death. Maybe he’d seen a scorpion or snake or tarantula out here that he really wanted to pet.

Richie didn’t answer. It took Eddie a few moments, but then he realized Richie was steering straight for the biggest building of the camp. He stopped in front of the door and like an idiot tried to open it.

“It’s locked, genius”, Eddie said. “Big surprise.”

“Well, that just sucks for your then”, Richie said smugly and turned into a bug. Now small enough to crawl underneath the door with ease, he was gone in a second.

Great. Was he just supposed to wait out here for whatever stupid thing he was doing in there? Eddie hadn’t wanted to be a part of this in the first place, but now that he was, he didn’t like being ditched like this. He should just go back to the cabin and watch as Bill – his only support in this stupid endeavour of going into the lab – was coerced into supporting it. There was no way Bill could convince everyone otherwise and if only one person went into the lab so would Bill. That was just the kind of person he was. Stupid idiots, the lot of them.

Eddie jumped at the sound of a window opening behind him and turned to see Richie waving him over.

“I don’t have any hair for you to climb”, he said, “but take my hand instead.”

Eddie sighed. “Move out of the way, Rapunzel. I can manage.”

All he had to do was hop onto the windowsill and swing his legs in, the window being at the height of his shoulders, but Richie would take every opportunity to be dramatic, wouldn’t he? And it really didn’t take a lot of convincing for Eddie to break into what looked like the camp’s dining hall and kitchen, did it? He was a bit disappointed in himself. Every time.

“Oh damn!” Richie hit his forehead just as Eddie set foot on the wooden floor of the dining hall, and changed into a girl with a long, brown ponytail that reached to her waist.

“Too late now. Lost opportunity.” A bit of a shame really. It would only have taken one strong tug on that hair and Richie would’ve dropped the Rapunzel act for… well, not forever, but at least until he’d forgotten the pain.

“I forgot I had this face.” He looked at himself as best as he could, then decided it wasn’t for him and turned into Bill, then Stan, then Will and finally back into himself. He did that sometimes, when he couldn’t decide what he wanted to look like. Eddie was glad, he decided not to wear a face. Richie’s ability was fun, sometimes, but he liked his normal face the best.

Eddie gestured to the huge, empty room. “What are we doing in here, Rich?”

He seemed to have forgotten his plan and where they were for a second and looked at the tables and chairs in confusion, but then his signature grin returned. “Right. We’re on an adventure.”

“Adventure to the kitchen?” Richie nodded. “Is this because I don’t want to go into the lab?”

Richie headed for the kitchen, so Eddie had to follow. He doubted there was anything to find in there, but if it entertained Richie, he would join him on this ‘adventure’. And by join, he meant, he was going to sit on the kitchen counter and watch Richie search through the cabinets and fridges.

“Why don’t you?”, Richie asked after a while of rummaging through pots and pans. What he hoped to find in there was a mystery to Eddie.

“It’s dangerous.”

There were things he was afraid of, like ASHA attacking them again, and there were things he was terrified of. Being caught in the lab and turned into one of their numbers was the latter. Was it weird that he’d rather die than be captured? And was it egoistic of him to not support his friends in this?

Richie snorted. “Your whole life is dangerous, sweetheart. You’re a Super.”

His condescending tone gave Eddie goose bumps. Despite what Richie thought, and probably most others, he wasn’t naïve about his Super status. Just because he had been able to hide it for longer than they had, didn’t mean that it hadn’t made his life hard. His mother had seen to that.

Richie stretched to take a look at the higher cabinets and pulled out a can of something out, holding it up like a prized trophy. He seemed so proud of himself, that Eddie gave him a weak smile and a thumbs-up.

“I just don’t want to be poked and prodded at again”, he said softly. “I don’t care if people hate me just for existing…” They did that anyway. The kids at school hadn’t known about his power and they’d still found enough reasons to pick on him, and when he’d fought back they’d picked on him for that too. “But I don’t want to lose control of my power again. It’s finally mine, and I can’t give that up.”

If ASHA caught them, he would lose all autonomy again. All his life he’d been stuck in a cage, and part of him had always known that, but he’d only truly realized it, when he’d been violently thrown out of it. A domesticated animal didn’t survive for long in the wild, and Eddie firmly believed he wouldn’t have either if Richie and the others hadn’t taken him in.

Whatever happened, he couldn’t go back to have people tell him how to act, what to think, what to say and when to use his power.

“We wouldn’t let that happen”, Richie said. He’d put his can down somewhere and was slowly approaching. “I wouldn’t let that happen to you.”

His heart skipped a beat, always a traitor when it came to Richie. “I can’t take the chance. I’m sorry.”

Richie smiled. “Don’t apologize. Nobody is going to make you go in that lab if you don’t want to.”

“ASHA has never been after me before. I know you’ve talked about it, but somehow it was never real. I didn’t know how scary this would be.”

It had just been talk. Everyone else had been so afraid of ASHA, so Eddie had been too, but he’d never had a reason. Ben and Bev were in the lab, Mikey had almost been killed along with his parents, Stan had to fear his own parents finding out and see them turn on him when they did, and Bill and Richie had grown up with their parents’ precautions in their ear at all times. Sure, his mother had warned him from using his power, too, but not because of ASHA. ASHA was a new villain in his life, one he didn’t know how to handle.

“That’s exactly why we need to do it. I’m so fucking tired of being scared.”

Richie leaned against the counter next to him, and momentarily Eddie forgot what they were talking about, because their shoulders were pressed together, and he could see the freckles on the bridge of Richie’s nose.

“If you’re not tired yet”, Richie said. “Give it a few years and you will wonder if all the running is even worth it.”

“Does it matter if you have nothing to run towards?”, Eddie asked. “Now that you know Mike, you have a family and a life. What do I have when I stop running?”

If ASHA didn’t exist, was there a point of all of them being together? Their group would disband, and he would end up alone. He could go to college and try to become a doctor like he’d planned to do, but would that really make him happy? Sure, life on the run was scary and exhausting, but he’d also never been happier than he was since he met all of them.

Richie looked at him through his thick glasses, serious, except for the trace of a smile playing around the corners of this mouth. Eddie’s heart started racing for no reason at all. Traitor.

“You’ll still have all of us, Eddie. I for one plan on keeping you company for the rest of your life.” He leaned in a bit closer, his eyes darted down to Eddie’s lips, and Eddie lost the ability to breathe. Richie reached out his hand and let it hover inches away from Eddie’s face. Any second now. Was this really happening? Would he really? And if he did what did it mean?

Eddie had waited for this moment a long time, always thinking that maybe he wasn’t the only one feeling like this, that maybe Richie felt the same way about him. He’d considered telling him several times but had always been too scared to see it through. He was accepted now, what if he wouldn’t be welcome in their group anymore if Richie rejected him? But now Richie was leaning in and…

He pinched his cheek. “Because you’re so damn cute, Eddie Spaghetti!”

He let out the breath he was holding and pushed Richie as hard as he could. “Fuck off!”

Richie tripped, and in between his steps he changed his face. “Aw, come on, Eds”, he whined. “You know it’s the truth.”

Eddie wasn’t sure what pissed him off more, Richie’s stupid jokes at the wrong time or the fact that he had to stare at himself. He had been so sure that… Well, it didn’t matter. He’d obviously been wrong.

“I’m done with this adventure”, he said, trying to sound as unbothered as he could. “And I’m taking your stupid ass can!”

He hadn’t finished his sentence when Richie bolted towards it and grabbed it. “I think the fuck not.” Too bad. Eddie had half a mind to throw it at him.

“Fine keep your…” He took a moment to read the label, then wrinkled his nose. “Sauerkraut” He didn’t want that anyway. “But change your damn face.”

Richie, in Eddie’s body, wiggled his eyebrows which looked just wrong. “Why? I like your body.”

“Because it’s mine! Pick one of the million others you have.”

“Anything for you, babe. What do you prefer?”

Normally Richie didn’t surrender this easily, but this time Eddie didn’t feel like celebrating his victory. Right now, all he wanted was to get away from him. He turned around and made his way back to the window he’d climbed through. “Try a slug.”

* * *

 

Stan looked sceptically at the map spread out on the bed of Bill’s truck. It was mostly Lucas’ work with input from El and some adjustments from Ben, and now they were faced with the most accurate map they would get. The wonky lines and several crosses and other symbols didn’t look assuring at all.

“I wonder what Dustin is up to”, Max said. She was looking after Mike who’d just left the group. “He loves this shit.”

“Maybe he only loves it, when it’s not real”, Bev said.

“If everyone is happy with the m-map”, Bill said. “We should f-f-figure out who’s g-going in.”

“We can’t all go”, Lucas said. “But we need someone to disable the cameras.” He pointed at the yellow crosses he’d marked on the map. There were hundreds. “Preferably before they even get a glimpse of us outside the gate.”

“How are we supposed to do that?”, Bev asked.

“Easy.” Max looked pleased, when she threw an arm around Stan’s shoulders. Almost like a proud mom. “Stan can do it.”

He choked. They’d been working on his powers every day, but he was far from taking anything this big on. If they relied on him, they were all doomed. Besides, he didn’t even want to go in the stupid lab. He wouldn’t stop the others if they wanted to, but he was with Eddie on this one. Walking into the ASHA lab was the dumbest idea any of them had ever had.

“Stan?”, Bill asked. “You want him to sm-sm-smash all the c-c-c-c-c…”

“Cameras”, Stan helped. “No. That’s not what they mean.”

“You can do it”, Ben said, encouragingly. “You’ve gotten really good already.”

He hadn’t had the chance to tell Bill about his powers yet. There had been so much else going on, that he’d simply forgot to tell him about the stuff he’d been working with Lucas on.

“Show them”, Lucas said. “Try the car radio.”

The car radio was easy, he’d done that a thousand times on their way here. It still felt weird to use his power and not call on the electricity but reach out for it in his surroundings. It had taken him a while to even get a feel for it, but when he did it now, he could feel the energy stored in the car batteries around him, could feel the electric wires in the cabins and where they met up with the generator. He concentrated on Bill’s truck, and suddenly the radio started blaring and the lights lit up.

“Just the radio.”

Stan rolled his eyes at Lucas but concentrated on the lights. He sensed the electricity flowing and stopped it. The lights went out.

Lucas was a surprisingly good teacher, or at least he didn’t get on Stan’s nerves enough that he wanted to fry him with one of his lightnings. Ben and Max had tried helping him too, but Ben was a bit too soft and encouraging and Max was very impatient. Lucas had the perfect balance.

“You did that?”, Bill asked, his blue eyes alight with excitement.

“Lucas has helped me with a few things.”

Bill ran a hand through his curls. “That’s am-m-m-mazing!”

Heat rushed to his cheeks, not so much because of the praise or how proud Bill was of him for turning a car radio on and off, but their friends were around, and he could already tell Max was snickering in her hand. As if she and Lucas hadn’t been disgustingly sweet whenever they thought nobody was looking. He shot her a glare, letting the electricity spark between his fingers.

It only made her laugh out loud. “We both know you’re not going to do it, Sparkles.”

This time he glared at Ben, who had the decency to look away. It was his fault for telling her Richie’s annoying nickname for him. She hadn’t stopped using it since.

“Try me, Mad Max.” It was a shame she actually thought her self-appointed nickname was cool and didn’t have the same effect as Sparkles.

“You couldn’t hit me if you tried.”

“Want to find out?”

“No!”, Lucas said quickly. “No, we don’t.”

Stan and Max both started laughing then. By now Lucas should’ve known they were just joking around. He would never use his lightning on any of his friends, besides he actually liked Max a lot, they shared the same humour.

“Do you think you can shut down the cameras”, Bev asked.

Stan looked at all the yellow crosses on the map. There were a lot. “I don’t know.”

“You won’t have to do them all at once”, Ben said. “And it doesn’t matter if they go on again once you’re past.”

“There will probably be more cameras than this or in different spots”, Lucas said. “It would be good for you to go just because you can sense them. If you can’t turn them off, El could just rip them off.”

“El is going?”, Bev asked. “She didn’t say.”

“She doesn’t have to.” Lucas looked over to where Michael and El where walking around the lake. They must’ve been on their third lap already. “El has a lot of unfinished business with ASHA. She will want to go in.”

“And she knows it the best”, Max added.

Bev grabbed one of the pencils and wrote El’s name in the corner of the map, then looked at Stan. “Are you okay with doing this?”

He felt their eyes bore into him. If he said no, that only meant his friends would still go and have a greater chance at getting caught and killed. His power was important for this and he was one of the strongest, he knew that. What choice did he have? “Yes.”

She scribbled his name underneath El’s.

“I’m going, too”, Bill said. “You’ll need p-p-puh-puh-p… my sh-shields.”

Nobody argued with that. Part of Stan didn’t want him going in, but the bigger part was relieved. He felt safer with Bill there, and he knew there was no convincing Bill otherwise.

“And me”, Ben said with a small voice. It was no secret he wasn’t eager to go back in, but he, like El, knew the place pretty well, and he was the only one who knew how to use that camera of his. His power could come in handy as well, who knew what they were up against in the lab.

“I could come”, Bev offered, after writing Ben’s name on the map, but she hadn’t even finished when Ben shook his head.

“No”, he said. “You don’t… Your power wouldn’t be all that useful, and… I think it’s best if you stayed here.”

She took his hand and held it firmly in her lap. “If you’re sure”, she said, smiling. “I’ll stay here.”

“I am.”

“Maybe four is enough”, Lucas said. “If the group gets much bigger you’ll get unwanted attention.”

Stan was okay with that, although he wouldn’t have minded having Eddie along just in case, or maybe Max or Lucas would be good in case it came to a fight, or Dustin to boost their powers. It struck him as funny though that at least three of the people who had voted against going into the lab or abstained, were actually the ones going in now. None of them did it for themselves. Stan and Bill knew there was nothing to go back to for them, but that didn’t mean their friends shouldn’t be allowed to see their families again, and at least for him it was about others as well. They definitely weren’t the only Supers hiding from ASHA, just wanting to live a normal life. There must be even more children, who didn’t get as lucky as him when their parents handed them over to the government. He did it as much for them as for himself and his friends. Ben did it for them too, because he would do anything for his friends, if they asked for it or not, and Bill would never let anyone go in there without his protection.

* * *

 

It took about half an hour to round the lake. Mike noticed this on their third round. It wasn’t that he was bored, but with neither of them saying much, it had occurred to him, he might as well time it. Dustin, who liked to be pseudo-scientific, would be proud of him.

The woods were on their right now, and it made him uneasy to know the lab was just beyond there. He almost expected ASHA agents to break through and kidnap them at any moment.

“You want me to meet your family?”, El asked.

“Huh?” It took him a moment to catch up with her, to remember what he had said in the cabin. “Oh, yeah, sure.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you”, he said simply. “And you’re part of my family. It’s only right you should know each other.”

“Your family is my family?”

“If you want to.”

She nodded, and her face lit up at the idea of having a family. Although Mike wasn’t sure if she really understood what a family was. They had often referred to their group as a family, or shared stories about their real family with her, but that was still far from experiencing family life.

“Have you ever thought about life without ASHA?”, he asked. “Like, what you would do if you could do anything without having to worry about them?”

“I would do this”, she said, vaguely. “Be with you and our friends, but it would be nicer. We’d be less scared.”

The more he thought about it, the less surprised was he by her answer. She didn’t really know anything else. She never went to school and had to think about college or what kind of job she’d want. She had probably never thought about travelling the world or getting married and have kids. And it was not something they ever really discussed as a group.

“I always thought I’d go back to Hawkins if ASHA would ever go away”, he said. “I’d take you with me and you’d meet my parents and my sisters. And I would go back to school, maybe even get to go to college. We’d get some job and an apartment, and our friends would come over every weekend for game night. We could even get a dog.”

He’d thought about it sometimes before falling asleep, an alternate universe where things were easy, and nobody wanted to capture or kill them, but he had never told anyone about it. First of all, it was pointless and depressing and second of all, they would make fun of him, at least Max and Dustin would.

“A dog”, El repeated, she was still smiling happily. “Maybe two dogs?”

Mike snorted. “Fine, two dogs.”

“I like that.” She snuggled closer to him and sighed contently.

 

_Mike cast a look into the rear-view mirror to make sure Lucas, Max, Will and Dustin were all passed out and fast asleep in the back. It wasn’t so easy to get time alone with El without Dustin making annoying comments about it, so he was determined to make the most of this. There was something about her, he couldn’t put into words. At first, he’d thought it was just fascination. There was this girl that had lived in an ASHA lab all her life and she didn’t knew the most mundane things and talked in a weird way, who wouldn’t have been fascinated by that? But he’d soon learned so much more about her. Sure, her innocence and cluelessness had been cute, but he was amazed by how fiercely protective she’d been of Lucas, how determined she’d been to learn everything about this strange new world she’d been catapulted into, how quickly she’d started to trust them and to open up._

_He’d known he was gone for her pretty quickly, maybe even before Max and Lucas knew about each other and they had barely taken two months to get it together. But El was different. She knew nothing about relationships of any kind, Lucas being her only friend and they had only communicated through a vent in their cell wall. So Mike had decided he was going to be her friend and let her figure herself out first._

_Somewhere along the way, he just missed the right time to tell her how he felt about her. It had been the six of them for over a year now and he still waited for the right moment._

_“Hey El?”, he asked, keeping his voice low so he wouldn’t wake the others._

_She turned to look at him, her big, brown eyes shimmering in the darkness._

_“I… uh…” His hands started sweating so he grabbed the wheel tighter, which only made his hands sweat more. He felt the blush creeping up his neck and was thankful she couldn’t see it in the dark. He really wanted to use his power on her, just for a moment, just to find out if she was going to turn him down or not, if he should just keep his mouth shut or go on and risk it. But she would know, she always knew. “I like you.”_

_“I like you, too. You’re my friend.”_

_“No, I…” Her face fell, and he quickly added. “I mean, yes, I am, but I mean… Well, I like like you.”_

_“Like like?”, she asked._

_He took a deep breath. “Like… Max and I are friends and like each other, but she likes me differently than she likes Lucas. And I like her differently than I like you.”_

_If possible, she just looked more confused than before. How was he going to explain this? He didn’t want to use the word love; he did love her but maybe that was coming on a bit too strong. How did movies make it look so easy to confess something so big?_

_“I mean”, he started, but didn’t know what to say. Then he had an idea. “Can I try something?” He pointed from his head to hers. “I won’t read your mind, I promise.”_

_She hesitated for a moment, but then she nodded._

_Mike wasn’t even sure if he could do it. He mostly used his powers passively, letting other people’s thoughts and memories wash over him, sometimes he would talk to someone, but he never tried sharing his thoughts and emotions. Getting into El’s head was easy, but he noticed she had more barriers around her mind than anyone else he’d ever met. As soon as they were connected, he could sense her confusion, but also anticipation. She trusted him not to hurt her or break his promise, but he could also tell how little she liked having him in there._

_Quickly he focused on himself, on how he saw her, what she meant to him, on the things he loved about her, his favourite memories, and he tried to take all that and show her. At first, he didn’t know if it worked, because El’s thoughts didn’t change much, but then it was like someone had hit a switch. Suddenly her mind was filled with him, pictures and emotions and snippets of conversation whirling around. It was overwhelming, and he wasn’t sure he was supposed to see, so he pulled away. He’d caught the essential underlying emotion though. She felt the same way about him. Not that he needed his power to tell him that, not when the way she looked at him right now made him weak._

_“I like like you, too”, she whispered._

He stopped for a moment with the woods behind them and stood overlooking the lake.

“I love you”, he said, resting his chin on her head.

“I love you, too”, she replied without missing a beat.

She’d come such a long way since that day two years ago, when they’d picked her and Lucas up somewhere around here, and he wanted nothing more than for her to grow more, to experience more.

“You’re going into that lab, aren’t you?”, he asked.

“I have to.”

“Then I’m coming with you.”

After what happened the last time they split up, Mike wasn’t going to let her face that place on her own. He knew there were going to be protests, from her, from Will, maybe some of the others too, but he had to do it. There was no way he was going to stay behind.

“It’s too dangerous, Mike.”

“It’s not too dangerous for you.”

Slowly she stepped away from him. She didn’t need to say anything, he could see it on her face. She was strong, he was not. Her powers would protect her, but he would be a distraction. He would be safer if he stayed behind.

“I’m going”, he said, before she could start lecturing him. “I will not let you go in there alone. We’ll both go, and we’ll make sure that we both come out again.”

“Mike…”

“And my powers are useful. I can hear people approaching long before any of you would hear their footsteps. I can find out about any secrets or traps or whatever. Not everything has to be solved with strength. I’m coming with you, El!”

His power could protect, too. Who had helped her, when Beverly had almost choked her to death the first time they met? It had been luck mostly, because he’d never used his power to attack anyone before, but apparently screaming mentally was a good offensive.

She cupped his face and let her hands run up into his hair until she was gently grabbing his head. “I never thought your power was useless.”

“But you don’t like it.”

“I would hate it”, she admitted. “If it was anyone else but you.”

That only made him feel a little better about himself. Most of the time his power was still a nuisance to his friends. _Get out of my head. You’re doing it again. Stop reading my mind._ He didn’t even do it on purpose, sometimes his grip on it just slipped.

“I was glad you were there, when they took the chip out. I know how good you are with your power, and I don’t think it’s useless. It just scares me.” She smiled. “It _scared_ me. It doesn’t anymore, because it’s you.”

She had been scared of him? Was that what the others felt too? Not annoyance but fear? Well, he could kind of understand. He wouldn’t like it if someone could see right through him and know everything about him. But he never did that. He caught momentary snippets of their thoughts, he never ventured farther to take a stroll through their memories.

He bent down to press his forehead against hers, at the same time he reached out for her mentally. She tensed in his arms, when she noticed his presence, but he could tell she wasn’t angry with him, just surprised.

“I’m coming with you”, he said, and showed her his determination at the same time. She would have to tie him to a tree or something if she wanted to stop him.

Her mind was worried, fearful, and he showed her that he was, too. They were in this together.

With a tilt of her head, El connected their lips. It was quite an experience. He knew what kissing her was like for him, but now he was in her mind and got to experience it from her side at the same time. If he had ever had any doubt about her feelings for him, he didn’t now.

“You’re coming with me”, she said, when she pulled away.

* * *

 

Will was in the minority, which was why he hadn’t said anything against going into the lab. He shouldn’t be against it in the first place; he’d give his right arm to see his mom and brother again. But how was he supposed to change Mike’s future and prevent him from dying if he was so dead-set on getting into trouble?

They hadn’t decided anything definitive yet, agreeing that they should all take some time and think about it. Nobody would have to go if they didn’t want to, but he was pretty sure at least some of them were already planning the whole thing. He’d hoped Bill or Mikey would actually keep their word and help him keep Mike safe, but since this was basically Mikey’s plan to begin with, that hope had gone out of the window. Will wanted to be mad at him. Mikey had promised him to keep Mike safe and then he did this? But then he was reminded of what ASHA did to his parents and how could he be mad at Mikey for wanting at least a little bit of justice? If that was his mom, he’d do the same.

“Earth to Will!”

He looked over at Dustin, half-dangling of the top bunk next to him. Everyone else had cleared out. Will was a bit sick of the cabin already, it was very cramped with all of them in here, but he’d just wanted to have some peace and quiet and opted to just lie here and wallow in his despair. It just wasn’t very easy to wallow, when Dustin was spinning his ridiculous Superhero fantasies again.

“What?”

“I asked if you want to go into the lab.”

“What use would I be? With my luck I’ll just have a vision in the middle of it and get us all caught”, he said, going back to staring at the markings on the ceiling.

“That is a good point”, Dustin said. “I was thinking we shouldn’t all go anyway. We’re too many people.”

Will hummed in agreement. Going into the lab was already the stupidest idea he’d ever heard but doing it as a whole group was just ridiculous. They’d be caught before they’d even stepped a foot in.

“I’ve calculated all our abilities and I think I’ve come up with the perfect team that has defensive and offensive powers and the best knowledge of the place. Sorry, Will, but you’re not on it. I should probably go, just in case anyone needs a boost or something.”

He went back to drowning out Dustin’s voice, knowing his friend wouldn’t need any encouragement to go on like this for hours, and he really didn’t care about calculations and whatnot right now. Although he was pretty sure Dustin wouldn’t actually be on this perfect team of his; he just wanted to see the lab for himself.

But maybe Dustin was onto something. As long as Mike didn’t go into the lab, Will had nothing against the plan. Or he could even go in as long as Dustin and Eddie didn’t. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to split the three of them up, he just had to find the right arguments.

“Hey Will”, Dustin said, waving his hand and almost falling off the bed in the process. “You’re quiet.”

“I’m always quiet.”

“More than usual. Is everything okay?”

“I’m just tired.”

“You didn’t have a vision or something, did you?”

“Dustin, I spent the past day thinking all of you were dead”, Will snapped. “I’m just tired, okay?”

He could almost hear Dustin’s mouth clamp shut, and immediately felt bad for snapping at him. The silence that followed wasn’t as sweet as he’d hoped, his words hanging over them accusingly. It wasn’t Dustin’s fault.

Dustin rolled onto his back, imitating Will. “I wouldn’t let him get hurt, you know.”

The softness of his words, how he almost whispered them sent icy shivers down Will’s spine. This was his secret. He’d never told Dustin, so how could he know? And if Dustin knew, did anyone else? No, they couldn’t. “I was worried about all of you.”

“Yeah of course”, Dustin said. “I just mean, I wouldn’t let any of them get hurt.”

“Sometimes there’s nothing you can do.”

He rolled on his side, the truth at the tip of his tongue. If anyone would understand why he was so on edge, Dustin would and if there was anyone he could tell who wouldn’t say anything it was him. There was something about travelling with two loved up couples that had made their friendship special. More often than not, they’d found themselves together while the others were spending time alone and it was in those quiet times that he’d really gotten to know Dustin, that they had shared some of the things they wouldn’t in the group.

Dustin held his gaze, and for a moment Will thought he understood even without words, but then he sighed and got that pained expression again. The one he always wore when he doubted his importance and ability. “Most times, you mean.”

“That’s not wh-…”

He stopped himself when he heard the door opening, but it was only Mikey. He smiled at them, walked over to Dustin’s bed and got comfortable in the bottom bunk. Will felt himself smiling back, Mikey just had one of those easy, infectious smiles. 

“I’m not interrupting, am I?”, he asked, while kicking his shoes off, clearly not going anywhere even if he were.

“Nah…” Dustin twisted around, going back to half hanging off the bed so he could see Mikey. “Do you want to go into the lab? Because I’m putting together the perfect team.”

Mikey sighed. “More of that. The others are out there coming up with all kinds of plans that made my head spin.”

Which made Will wonder why Dustin was in here. He clearly wasn’t tired and as far as Will knew he rarely needed time away from the group, especially not when they were in the middle of his favourite activities. But even now Dustin made no move to go out and join them.

When he looked down, he noticed Mikey watching him. “Are you okay?”, he asked, making a vague gesture to his head. “Any more… headaches?”

That was probably his way of subtly asking about his visions and how he felt about going into the lab with Mike’s life on the line.

“I’m fine, just tired”, Will said, sending a half-smile in Dustin’s direction. “And I would be sleeping if someone knew how to shut up.”

Dustin scoffed. “You could’ve just asked me to.”

“You’re right, I should’ve known the subtlety of ‘I’m really tired’ while lying in a bed would be lost on you.”

“Subtle.” Dustin snorted. “Sorry to burst your bubble, Will, but you’re anything but subtle.”

Again with this. Maybe Dustin didn’t even mean anything by it or was hinting at something else entirely and yet Will couldn’t shake the feeling he was implying his feelings for Mike. They might have shared a lot of secrets, just the two of them, but this was something he wouldn’t trust anyone with. He didn’t even trust himself to think about it.

Mikey laughed, but quickly covered it up with a fake yawn.

“See”, Dustin said. “Even Mikey agrees with me.”

“I don’t agree with anyone”, he said. “I’m calling Switzerland.”

“Switzerland?”

Mikey waved him off. “Never mind.”

_One moment Will was looking down at him and the next, the room dissolved around him. Everything around him changed until he found himself sitting at the table in his mom’s kitchen. It looked different than he remembered. There was a picture of Jonathan and Nancy stuck to the fridge where his mom used to hang his drawings. The old coffeepot had been replaced by a new, modern coffee maker. On the table in front of him was a piece of paper with a bullet list written on it, but it was mostly just dots and empty spaces._

_“Can you set the table? Your mom should be home any moment.”_

_Mikey suddenly appeared behind him and took his place by the stove, stirring the pot on it. As he passed, he glimpsed at the list in front of Will. “Making any progress?”_

_Will crumpled the paper up and threw it down the hall, that should be answer enough._

_“Don’t stress about it”, Mikey said. “You’ll figure something out.”_

_Will got up to get the dishes from the cupboard, but just when he reached for them, Mikey wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into his chest. He smelled of earth and summer, and his breath was hot when it brushed over Will’s ear and neck. “Come on”, he whispered. “You have time, you can take it easy.”_

_“I’m going insane”, Will sighed. “You have your job on the farm, and mom is at the store all day, and I do nothing.”_

_“Nothing isn’t what I would call it. And it’s not like we’re short on money.”_

_He turned his head slightly, an opportunity for Mikey to steal a kiss. For a second, he relaxed, but then Mikey’s fingers were digging into his sides, making him squirm and struggle to free himself._

_“Stop!”, he yelped in between fits of giggles. “Stop!”_

_“Only if you promise to stop worrying. At least for tonight. There’ll be enough depressed people at the Wheeler’s house.”_

_“Oh, right… I almost forgot.”_

_Mikey released him, going back to cooking as if nothing had happened, but he smiled his usual warm, happy smile that Will just couldn’t resist. He took up the task of setting the table again, now with an identical smile on his face._

When he came to, starring at the wooden ceiling of the cabin, his heart was racing, his face burning. It had been a long time since he’d had such a clear vision that he still couldn’t make sense of. It was neither past nor present, but how could it be the future?

He wasn’t sure what confused him more, being back in Hawkins leading an ordinary life or having Mikey there. Being with Mikey. And what was that about depressed people at the Wheeler’s? Did this mean Mike really did die? And if he did, how could he still have been so happy? Because that’s what he had been. He could still feel the traces of it now.

No. This wasn’t the future. This was one of those visions that could be true, but never would be. Too out there.

“Is he asleep?”, Mikey called.

“Nope”, Dustin said, popping the P. “He looks like he’s seen a ghost.”

“Vision”, Will mumbled.

“Bad?”

“I…” He wanted to say, yes, because Mike was still dead. Wanted to say no, because they were Supers and apparently living in peace. Wanted to say… He didn’t know if the Mikey part was good or bad. It was… unexpected.

When he rolled over again, he saw the worry in Mikey’s eyes. Clearly, he was thinking about his vision of Mike, maybe he thought this had been a follow up, or maybe he thought it was about the ASHA lab. “Do you want to tell me? Us, I mean.”

Will shook his head. “It wasn’t bad”, he decided. “Just confusing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know some of Eddie's thoughts might be confusing because we haven't gotten to his backstory, but I'm saving that for a later chapter.
> 
> Next we'll have a look at an ASHA lab


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben, Mike, El, Stan and Bill go into the ASHA facility and run into someone they didn't expect

At first nobody had wanted him to go into the lab with El, Stan, Bill and Ben, but Mike hadn’t backed down. Eventually Max and Richie had backed him up that his power could be useful. The others had probably just agreed to end the discussion, but both Dustin and Will seemed to have taken personal offense. Dustin he could kind of understand; his friend wanted to go so badly, but had had no luck convincing the others, and Mike knew how jealous he was of everyone else’s powers on any normal day.

But Will… Something was up with his friend. He’d noticed Will being weird ever since they’d met Richie and the others. He was absent a lot, worried, sometimes straight up hostile and his mind was more confusing than ever. Will didn’t let him use his powers on him, and Mike respected that, usually, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him.

They’d decided to go into the lab late in the afternoon, when the dark had settled. This gave them time to prepare for a hurried escape, Stan had some time to practice his new abilities and Max and Richie had gone on a supply run.

It was also pouring down, which meant the rest of the group was all holed up in the cabin and with tension running high, it was not pleasant.

Mike was optimistic when it came to the lab. He’d meant what he said to El, they would go in together and they would come out together, but he thought it best to talk to Will now. Who knew in what kind of trouble they’d be in afterwards, and if there would be time to have a private conversation.

He sat next to his friend, who was watching Eddie, Dustin, Mikey and Lucas play a card game, and dangled the keys to the bus in front of him. “Hey Will, can I get some help packing the bus?”

It was the lamest excuse, but it was all he could think of not to say ‘We need to have a talk’ in front of all their friends. He was pretty sure Will saw through him no problem, but he got up and followed Mike out all the same.

With their jackets raised over their heads, they ran the short way over to the bus, but still managed to get considerably wet. He let Will climb in first, then closed the door behind himself. The windows had already started fogging up.

“What is it, Mike?”, Will asked, crawling into the first row of seats.

He shook the rain off his jacket and took a seat on the opposite side. “That’s what I want to ask you. You’ve been strange lately.”

When he’d told the others, he was going into the lab, Will’s reaction had been… not good. After having Will shout in his face for worrying him and not contacting him, Mike didn’t think he could get any angrier, but he’d apparently been wrong.

Now, he knew how Will felt about him, and he could somewhat understand, but Will had never before been this protective of him. Something had changed, and Mike just couldn’t figure out what.

“I don’t… I’m worried, is all.”

“You weren’t worried about El going in there.”

Will shot him a glare. “Of course, I’m worried about El. The others too, but it’s different.”

“How?”

Will sighed and rested his head on the back of his seat. Maybe he shouldn’t push him, what would he even do if Will told him about his feelings? But Mike still wasn’t convinced that had anything to do with Will’s change. There was something else going on.

“It just is.”

“Whatever is going on with you, Will, you can tell me. If it’s a vision or whatever, you don’t have to bear that on you own.”

Part of him was annoyed that Will didn’t talk to him. They were best friends after all, practically family, and there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t share with him. He a got a glimpse of Will’s mind then, and immediately pulled back when he saw an image of Mikey and Will in the Byers’ kitchen. Will would hate knowing that he saw that. Was that part of a vision Will had had? Or just something he wanted?

Mike had noticed they were spending quite some time together, but he hadn’t expected this. Would that cause the change in Will’s behaviour? Was he scared their friends would find out he was gay? Was that why he didn’t want their groups to join?

“It’s nothing like that”, Will said. “You’re just… Well, you’re home, Mike. You’re not just my friend. You’re Hawkins, you’re family, you’re all the home I have left, and I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”

Oh. He was reminded once again that Will didn’t have to leave Hawkins and his family behind, that he’d done that for him. Mike had been so concerned with El and Richie lately, he hadn’t been a very good friend to Will, had he?

“You’re not going to lose me”, he said, “because we’re all going to come back.”

“You keep saying that, but you don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do! You’re my best friend, and I will come back from that lab, so we can bring ASHA down together. You’re my family, too, Will, and we’ll return to Hawkins together just as we left it together.”

A small smile finally managed to find its way onto Will’s face, a small victory Mike would accept for now. He couldn’t wait for them to kick ASHA’s ass so they could all feel safe again, and he wouldn’t have to have conversations with the people he loved about losing each other.

“Don’t do anything stupid in there”, Will said.

Mike scoffed. “You say that as if I do stupid shit all the time.”

“Because you kind of do.”

“Name one thing!”

“You’re going into an ASHA lab even though you really don’t have to. You made us all follow Richie’s group right after meeting them in a fight that could’ve turned ugly. You once attacked someone with a plastic knife because he was being gross towards Max. Or remember that time – “

“Fine!”, Mike quickly shouted. He had a feeling Will could go on for ages, and he couldn’t even argue with that. Objectively those were all stupid things, but he’d had a good reason for all of them. “Fine, sometimes I do stupid shit, but I won’t this time.”

“Good.” Will grinned. “That’s all I wanted to hear.”

* * *

 

The light faded quickly today, and soon it was time for them to make the trip to the lab. Richie had taken the risk to find the best path for them and had told them it would be about half an hour through the woods. With the rain not letting up, they would be drenched before they even got there. The rain would be the least of their worries, though.

Bev hugged him fiercely. “Be careful”, she mumbled into his ear. He didn’t need the reminder. “This is your last chance to back out. Somebody else can go.”

But there really wasn’t anybody else. None of the others knew how to operate the camera and while they would probably manage fine, it was too big a chance. They had only one try to get the right footage. He had to go. Even if he really, really didn’t want to.

Ben put on a brave face. “I’ll be fine.”

He saw, she was about to protest again and cut her off with a kiss. It was wild, he got to do that now. That would take some getting used to, but he doubted that he ever would.

“Stop hogging Haystack”, Richie exclaimed and threw his arms around him for a short hug. “Fuck shit up, yeah?”

Eddie pushed him away. “Don’t listen to him!”

Ben said goodbye to him and Mikey too, then Bill called them all outside. Ben pulled the hood of his new rain poncho up. Max had gotten them all identical, black ones, and with the rain and the dark, Ben was a little worried they’d lose each other in the woods. At least ASHA would have trouble spotting them.

As they set off, Ben felt a little out of place with Bill and Stan in the lead and El and Mike in the rear, both couples holding onto each other. All he had was the camera under the poncho. Originally, he had wanted to wait with the transformation until they got to the lab, but what if there weren’t any objects in the right size? No, this was safer, but also made the walk that much harder.

“You think the rain is a bad omen?”, he asked.

“If anything, we should be th-…” Mike cut himself off, when he slipped in the wet, soft forest ground and landed on his butt. El helped him to his feet, an amused expression on her face. “Thankful”, he finished, grumbling.

His hood had fallen off, and he pushed his now wet hair out of his face.

“No t-t-talking”, Bill said. “We don’t know if they have pat-t-t-trols out here.”

Ben looked around them but couldn’t see very far. The thought of ASHA being out here, maybe already spying on them made his skin crawl.

“Richie didn’t say anything about patrols”, Stan said.

Bill shrugged. “Better be safe.”

They walked in silence for what felt like forever. Bill was confidently navigating the woods, how he did it, Ben didn’t know, it was impossible to see anything. They would probably get lost or miss the lab. He had managed to ban it from his thoughts for a long time, but now that he was about to step foot in it again, he remembered the bright, fluorescent lights, the cold concrete floors and blank, white walls. The collar around his neck had always made him feel like being strangled despite it not being that tight. All the nights he had laid in bed and tried to pry it off, he’d tried for much longer than he should’ve. A normal person would have given up after a few days, right? The agents had never mentioned his bloody, broken nails or if they had watched his futile attempts over the camera in the corner of the room.  

What had been more amusing to them? The neck scratching or him screaming his lungs out and bruising his hands by pounding on the door of his cell, when he’d had a particularly bad dream. As much as he had hated them, in those times he’d welcomed any friendly face even if it’d been fake, but nobody ever came. Eventually he’d worn himself out and fallen back asleep.

He felt the same hopelessness creep into his bones. There must’ve been so many more children in that lab, feeling the exact same way. How many would they find tonight? And what would they do? They hadn’t made any plans regarding the kids they wanted to free, it had been an unspoken agreement that they wouldn’t take anyone in. The risks were too high. But what if they set these kids lose and they were snatched up again, who knew what the consequences for escape were. Or if they set the kids lose and their mind was set on revenge? Whatever ASHA got, they deserved, but would the public be safe?

His thoughts were interrupted by Bill raising a hand, signalling them all to stop. There was a light ahead. Ben had never gotten a real good luck at the facility, but surely this couldn’t be it, could it? It was a small, concrete bunker, partly overgrown with moss. It was enclosed by a high barbed wire fence with floodlights and cameras. A broad, dirt road led directly to the heavy gate, but today it had turned into a muddy creek.

Except for the fence and the cameras this place looked so unassuming. Hikers would probably come upon it, see the private property sign and decide this was some rich person’s private bunker for the impending apocalypse.

They were huddled closely together, staying out of the lights. El’s face was scrunched up and Ben couldn’t tell if she was trying to keep her anger and hatred under control or battling with painful memories herself. Stan seemed almost serene, his eyes closed, lips upturned into an easy smile. And then they were plunged into darkness as the floodlights went out.

“Quick”, Stan hissed, already sprinting towards the gate. “They won’t stay dead for long.”

Bill pointed at the gate as he ran. “El!”

She nodded, and without so much as a gesture, the gates started to open. Slowly and with a strain, but they didn’t need much more than a crack to squeeze through.

Suddenly they were right in the middle of it all. For some reason Ben had thought they would have a second to prepare, but now they were running towards a bunker filled with ASHA agents with nothing but their powers to protects them and if it wasn’t for his heart pumping adrenaline through his body, he would’ve frozen in fear right then and there. How on earth did they ever think they could break in and just walk out again? He’d thought about dying in the facility before, but this time he was certain he would.

Stan was the first through the gate, then Bill and Mike. El let him go first. Would he even fit? The crack wasn’t very wide, and he was much bigger than the other boys. As if reading his thoughts, the gates moved a few inches more.

El smiled, when he looked at her. “Because of the camera”, she explained.

He mouthed a thank you, not caring if the camera really was her concern or she had seen his problem too, only grateful he wouldn’t get stuck like some cartoon character and have his friends push and pull him through the gates.

“Open it already!”, he heard Mike hiss as he joined the others at the doors to the bunker.

Behind him the gates clanked shut again and El appeared next to him. They were all looking at the control panel to the doors, Mike urging Stan to open it.

“I can’t!”

“Why the hell not?”

“I’m not a technopath! I can control electricity, turn stuff on and off, but I can’t tell the damn door to open sesame.”

His grip on the camera was getting tighter as it started slipping in his sweaty hands. How was this happening? They hadn’t even gotten into the lab and things were starting to go wrong?

“I can try”, El said.

“That will take all your energy!”

“Fuck!”, Bill cursed, and kicked the door as if that would help at all.

“What if you fry it?”, Mike said, jerking his head to the control panel.

Stan shrugged. “It’s more likely to just stay locked.”

“You t-t-try then”, Bill said to Mike. “There must be some g-g-guard around whose mind you can read.”

Mike opened his mouth to protest, but apparently thought better of it.

“That will take forever”, Stan said, looking right at El. “We need to get in now!”

She pushed past them, took a few deep breaths and concentrated on the door. Her hands were shaking, the muscles in her neck were taught, but nothing happened. If she couldn’t do this, the whole thing was over. They hadn’t achieved anything, just alerted ASHA to their presence.

El was now straining so much, her whole body was trembling. At last the door started to budge, making soft creaking noises. For some reason this struck Ben as the perfect time to start filming.

“Bill”, Mike said. “Shield.” He unlocked the door easily by putting in a seven-digit code, then went over and grabbed El around the waist and repeated more urgently: “Bill! Shield!”

Thankfully Bill managed to throw one up right before the door swung inwards, because they were greeted with gun shots. Three soldiers were positioned in the wide hallway, guns raised. They took short break but kept shooting as soon as they realized they weren’t with ASHA.

El was leaning heavily on Mike at the moment, so it was up to the rest of them to deal with the soldiers. However, Ben had both his hands full with the camera, Mike was supporting El and had no means to attack, and Stan would have to step out of the shield to use his powers and possibly get himself shot in the process.

“We have to do something quick”, Stan said. “Before they raise the alarm.”

Mike pointed to a door on the left halfway between them and the soldier. “They would need to get in there.”

Ben tried to see behind them. The hallway was wide enough for cars to pass through and led down into a brightly lit hall. The memories of his escape were vague, he mostly remembered following Bev’s lead, but he was pretty sure down there was the garage where they had hidden behind a transporter until Bev had decided it was clear.

“Let me t-try something”, Bill muttered. He stepped forward and Ben could feel the shield behind him disappear. Bill usually went for a dome shape to be safe from all sides, but now he used it like an invisible wall to push the soldiers backwards until their way to the door was cut off.

ASHA people weren’t the smartest people, Ben decided, when they kept firing at them even though none of the bullets penetrated Bill’s shield. He recognized their guns to be Glock 20s with a 15-round magazine, but with three of them it was impossible to tell how many bullets they’d already fired. With them being on guard here, he doubted they’d have any spare magazines on them though. Soldiers in the facility rarely used their weapons and if they did, they didn’t have to fire 15 times in a row. No, they wouldn’t be able to reload once they ran out.

“Stan”, he called to get his attention, then dropped his voice so the soldiers wouldn’t hear. “Wait for them to stop shooting. It should be safe for you to slip around Bill’s shield and use your power.”

Stan looked paler than usual, but his expression was determined when he nodded, so maybe it was just the harsh light in here.

At the rate the soldiers were shooting, it didn’t take long for them to run out of ammunition. Stan didn’t miss a beat as he raced past Bill, who tried to grab him but was just out of reach. “Stan!”

The lightning engulfed Stan from head to toe, and although Ben had seen it before, it was still hard to believe Stan was still flesh and blood underneath and hadn’t just transformed himself into pure electricity. One of the guards screamed, another tried to run, but only managed two steps before he was hit square in the back and fell to the floor. Dead or unconscious, Ben couldn’t tell. The other two joined him on the floor in seconds.

“Is anyone else around?”, Ben asked Mike. He could hear their thoughts if they were, right? That’s how he’d known they’d be behind the door.

He shook his head. “Not up here. But a lot of people down there.” He pointed at the garage.

“Lower your shield”, Stan told Bill. “We’ll need it again later.”

Bill stared at him, fire blazing in his eyes and the muscles of his jaw clenching and relaxing. His hands were balled into fists and for a moment Ben was sure he was going to punch Stan until he remembered this was Bill, and Bill would never.

Still, something was odd about him, and they didn’t have the time for a big fight right now. “Yeah”, Ben said, placing a hand on Bill’s shoulder, feeling tense, hard muscles under his hand. “Save your strength.”

Bill shrugged his hand off but took his shields down with the same motion.

El and Mike were leading the way now. He was still supporting her, but she seemed stronger again. As they passed the soldiers on the floor, Ben refused to look at them and kept the camera trained ahead. The video was supposed to show ASHA’s horror not theirs.

He expected more soldiers to swarm them as they crossed the garage, but it seemed like nobody had noticed them yet and Stan was doing a good job at turning of the cameras as they came into view.

“We should go right”, El said as they reached the corridor on the other end.

To Ben, both sides looked exactly the same, more concrete and garish lighting, but no doors yet. Despite having spent some years in here, Ben had no orientation right now. The only time he’d ever seen the garage was at his escape. His days were mostly spent in his cell and being marched through a maze of tunnels like this one to examination rooms or to the shooting range.

They walked in silence again, Stan keeping an eye on the cameras, Mike listening for people approaching, El leading the way and Bill ready to raise a shield at any second.

A few times, Mike made them stop and wait while some ASHA agent, nobody else could see or hear moved out of their path. Several times they crept past rooms filled with chatter, yelling and on one occasion screams. It would’ve been easy for them to kick down the door and make the Super’s suffering stop, but they couldn’t risk blowing their cover. It made Ben sick that this video was more important than a human life. Maybe they could help him on their way back.

Mike made them stop again, just as the corridor was about to take a turn. “There’s two guards ahead. I don’t think they’ll move anytime soon.”

“Can we t-t-take another way?”, Bill asked.

El shook her head. “The cells are this way.”

Oh. Now Ben knew where they were. How many times had he passed those two guards at the entrance to the cells? He remembered looking at them for help when he was new here, and one of them joking with his partner that Ben looked at him like he was the Messiah. He never learned their names, but he definitely learned to tell them apart. There was moustache guy who looked like he wanted to tear him to shreds, but actually handled him gently, as opposed to the Fury who would dig her fingers into Ben’s shoulders like a bird of prey. There was Stinky with the most horrendous breath, who would throw the plate of food into his cell so hard that most of it landed on the floor. There was Zapper, who earned his nickname by zapping him for made up misdemeanours just because he thought it was funny to watch Ben drop whatever he was holding and squirm in pain.

“I can take them out”, El said. “We just need to be quick.”

They took a moment to gather themselves, then Bill put up a shield, Stan took out more cameras, and they turned the corner. The corridor turned into a crossing here, the guards standing in front of the path straight ahead. El threw out her arm as soon as her eyes locked on them. Ben had almost expected to recognize the guards, but these seemed to be new. A bit of a shame, really. He would’ve loved to see Zapper or Furry freeze like these two guards did now. Their eyes bulged, the only part of them that was still able to move. El knocked them into each other, head-first, and knocked them out cold.

The others hurried past the guards, but Ben stopped them. “Take the keys”, he muttered. “And the… the thing for the collars.”

“Good idea.” Bill knelt and searched one of the guards, taking the keys off his belt and the slick, metal device out of his pocket.

Doors were on either side of the tunnel, maybe six feet between each one. Ben’s eyes were drawn immediately to the sixth on the left. There were no traces from when Bev had ripped the door off its hinges, they had probably just fixed it up and pushed another kid into his old cell maybe a week later, maybe even the next day.

“Are we going to just open the doors?”, Mike asked. “They’ll be spotted on the cameras.”

“They’ll know we’re in here then”, Stan said.

“That was the whole p-p-point of th-this. Get in, rescue the S-s-s-s-s-… the others and f-film it.”

“They are like us”, El said. “They can fight the guards.”

“And create a d-d-distraction for uh-uh-uh-us.”

Bill strode towards the first door, but before he unlocked it, he stopped and opened the metal hatch instead. Each door had these hatches for the guards to check on them or for food and other items to be passed through. Bill took one glance inside, then stepped aside and waved Ben over. Oh right, they needed to get this on camera too.

Inside was a small girl, maybe nine years old, and so tiny the power-suppressing collar around her neck seemed so big and heavy that it weighed her down.

With a soft click the door unlocked and Ben stepped back so Bill could open it. The girl moved back to the far wall at first, but her curiosity got the better of her, when she saw their little group. “Who are you?”

“Friends”, El said. She took the collar-opener from Bill and approached carefully. “We can get you out of here.”

“Really?”

“What’s your power?”, Stan asked. “You might need it on your way out.”

The girl pursed her lips, clearly more suspicious of the boys than she was of El. Ben made sure he got the whole thing on camera, made it clear how small and sparse the cell was, and really tried to get the interaction with her and El. They needed to show that these were just kids, who’s only fault in life was to have been born a Super.

El knelt in front of her and showed her the device in her hand. “I’ll take off your collar”, she said. “And you’ll be able to use your powers again. We’re going to let the others out too and you run for the exit.”

“But… I don’t know where that is.”

El smiled. “That’s okay.” She looked over her shoulder at Mike and silently beckoned him to step forward. As he approached the girl shied away further. “You don’t have to be afraid. This is my friend, and he has a power just like you. When I take off your collar, he can show you the way out. Right?”

Mike hesitated, but then nodded. Ben had no idea he could do things like that. Now he was glad Mike had convinced the others to let him come, without him they would’ve been completely screwed. Not only with the door in the beginning but they had no time to give each of these kids directions.

It took another few painstakingly slow moments until the girl finally let El take her collar off, in which Ben’s heart started to race. It felt like they’d been in here for hours already. Someone must’ve noticed the cameras randomly turning on and off, or the guards missing on their posts. But then the collar fell to the floor with a clang, Mike locked eyes with the girl for a few seconds at most and then she disappeared. Just like that, she was gone. As he was still standing in the doorway, he felt someone push him and then heard running footsteps getting fainter. Invisibility. She probably wouldn’t raise any alarms. Thank God.

The rest of the kids were kind of the same. Some needed more persuasion to trust them than others, some waited around a bit after getting freed, but they all ran in the end. There were kids as young as four years old, who didn’t understand at all what was going on, and Ben was relieved when they unlocked a few more cells and it turned out his older brother was in here, too, and could take care of him. What would they have done otherwise? They couldn’t take a toddler with them, but they also couldn’t just leave him here.

After the first ten cells, they heard the alarm. A loud, shrill siren that made Ben’s insides freeze. Get out. They had to get the hell out of here, but there were still so many more kids inside. The alarm sent them all into a panic. The ones that were already free started running in all directions, completely ignoring what Mike had told them, the ones in the cells started banging on the doors and shouting at them to hurry up, nobody wanting to be left behind.

“Let’s hurry the fuck up!”, Mike shouted, ran back to the guards and got the second set of keys.

Ben willed himself to stay calm enough to hold the camera steady, but it wasn’t easy with his heart pounding in his ears and every fibre of his body telling him to run and get out of there.

Things were moving fast now, but not fast enough. Too many cells were still locked. There were so many. Most of them must’ve been here while Ben was still a number here, some of them might have been born here like El.

The alarm was still blaring, but it was now mingled with the sound of gun shots and screams of pain. Ben only hoped the screams were coming from the guards and not the kids. To distract him, he walked towards a door and opened the hatch. He peered inside the cell and was surprised to find this one actually furnished. It was still sparse, but there was a desk and a dresser, even some personal belongings on a small shelf.

A boy with platin blonde hair was lying on the bed, staring into space with a bored expression, but when he turned to look at the door, he smiled. There was something about that smile that gave Ben chills. The boy sat up and Ben had to admit, he was hardly a boy. The guy was older than him, but that made it even sadder. If they didn’t do anything, he would spend the rest of his life in this tiny cell and wither away.

He felt someone lean in next to him, and then suddenly the hatch was slammed shut.

“We have to get him out!”, Ben said.

“No!”, El said, shaking her head so hard it made her curls fly. “Not that one!”

She whipped around and used her powers to slam the opposite door shut just as Bill was about to open it, ran over and locked it again. She peeked through the hatch and let out a sigh of relief. “They are ASHA”, she told them.

“What do you mean?”, Ben asked.

How could anyone in a cell with a power-suppressing collar around their neck be ASHA? El shook her head, there was no time to explain. He wanted to protest, to get this done right, but stopped himself. She seemed to know them, and he trusted her. If she said they had to stay, she had a reason for it.

“They are bad.”

“Alright, let’s g-…”

Ben turned around to see why Bill had stopped himself. He nearly dropped the camera, he might even have blacked out for a second. They were done now.

“Papa”, El whispered.

He’d rarely seen Dr Brenner in his time at the facility, but the few times he had, had been the worst training sessions of his life. Why on earth would El refer to him as Papa? He wasn’t really her father? Or was he?

The corridor had cleared out, how the kids had gotten past Brenner and the four guards with him, Ben couldn’t explain, but he just hoped they were okay. They were probably better off than they would be.

“Eleven”, Brenner said, a wide smile stretching across his face. He stepped forward, arms outstretched as if he wanted to hug her. Then his eyes wandered over each of them and finally lingered on Ben. If possible, his smile grew even bigger. “And Thirteen. My two favourite projects.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group runs into Brenner, who still has hopes of getting Eleven back.

They were all packed and crammed into the cars, doors open despite the heavy rain. The others had been gone for over an hour now and they were all getting restless. Bev was especially worried. She knew, she shouldn’t have let Ben go in there. She knew how terrified he was of the place, how he still had nightmares about it. Sometimes he even talked in his sleep. She had only been in the lab for seven days before her escape and it had been seven days too many. The guards had all known about what she’d done to her father and would not stop reminding her how she should be put to death. They might even have done it, if Bev had stuck around long enough.

Suddenly the sound of a siren cut through the rain drumming on the roof of the van. Next to her Eddie froze up, Richie jumped out of the open door and stared at the woods. The siren could only mean one thing. They had been discovered.

“Shit!”, she heard Dustin swear loudly.

Bev slowly got to her feet and stood next to Richie, who immediately threw an arm around her.

She hoped to see the others running towards them, yelling for them to start the cars, but the woods remained dark and unmoving.

What would they do if the others never came back? They couldn’t just leave them to ASHA. But what if ASHA had no use for them and killed them on the spot? In her head she could already see her friends riddled in bullet holes, bleeding out on the concrete floors of the facility.

Her heart was beating painfully in her chest. It had taken her so long to finally accept her feelings for Ben, and now they didn’t even get to be together? They couldn’t just let ASHA rip their group apart like this.

“We should go up there”, she said.

The plan was to wait here, but there was no way she was just going to stay here and wait while her friends were about to die.

“Get in the van”, Richie said. “I know how to get there.”

* * *

 

“What is this?”, Papa asked, slowly approaching.

For every step he took towards them, El took one back until she bumped into Mike. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. _I’m here._

Papa looked at Ben. “I see you haven’t forgotten your training.”

The camera in Ben’s hands was shaking badly now, but he kept it trained on Papa the whole time.  She’d always thought that she’d be angry when she saw Papa again, that she would snap his neck within seconds, but the seconds ticked by and all she felt was fear. He was going to take her again. He was going to hurt Mike.

“You had us worried, Eleven. When your chip stopped working we feared we had lost you.”

“Stay back!”, Stan shouted. His hands were engulfed in white-blue electricity, but El knew he couldn’t use it, not with Bill’s shield between them and Papa.

He didn’t know that though, and he and his guards stopped advancing for now. El didn’t like the expression on his face, as if he was seizing them up, probably already making plans for what he could do with Stan’s power.

“You’ve found some very interesting friends.”

“We have to go”, Mike hissed, low enough only she could hear it. “He’s buying time, waiting for more guards to come. And I don’t like the way he’s thinking about all of us.”

She had to shake her fear and clear the way, her power still working while inside Bill’s shield. If she didn’t, they’d be pushed into these cells and all turned into soldiers just like her brothers, she had wanted to leave behind. Or they’d be killed.

“I knew you would come back when the time was right”, Papa said, just as she was about to take care of the guards. “You are special, Eleven. Hiding and running isn’t the life for you and you know it. I always knew, you’d eventually come back and resume your training.”

“You let me go!” Of course, she didn’t regret her escape, but it didn’t sit right with her, that she’d apparently done exactly what he had wanted her to. But why? “Why did you let us go?”

“El”, Mike pleaded. Time was ticking. But she had to know.

“No. This exercise was only meant for you, but mistakes were made. It’s not important now, since you brought Thirteen back with you, and I suppose Seventeen can’t be far either.”

“Why?”, she repeated. She was going to make sure he didn’t get his hands on Ben or Lucas or any of her friends, but she just needed to know what exercise this had been. Why would he think it was good for ASHA if she escaped?

Papa shrugged. “You weren’t willing to use your full potential. You were too soft, and I guess that I am partly to blame for that. I was too soft on you.”

“Soft?”, Mike scoffed. “You abused her! Her and all the other kids in here!”

Papa waved him off. “Don’t talk about things you don’t understand, boy. Eleven has great powers, they go beyond your imagination and she was afraid to use them. So, I let you out in the world to give you incentive, and you didn’t disappoint.”

Bile rose in her throat as she understood what he was talking about. Papa had tried everything to make her use her power on people, and she had refused. He had even put her in the arena with her brothers and given them free range, but she couldn’t kill them. Not even when they all used their powers on her. They were just like her, Papa’s projects, and he wouldn’t let them kill her, just hurt her. So, she had taken the pain and still refused to end it.

 

_Even though she knew it was useless to hide, she crept behind a boulder and tried to catch her breath. This was the fifth time Papa had sent her in the arena with her brothers, but she didn’t understand why. She had been fighting them before but never like this, never without rules. Why were they so mean?_

_“Eleven.” The melodic, inviting voice sing-songed. She pressed her hands over her ears. Five might not know where she was, but he would make her come out of hiding even before Four could find her._

_Her heartbeat was now so loud in her ears, she couldn’t hear anything else. She pressed her eyes shut and hoped this would already be over. Papa would be disappointed if she didn’t fight. Her brothers would be disappointed, but she just couldn’t._

_“Here little mouse. Come here.” Nine’s voice was close, he could probably smell her already. Any second he’d come around that boulder, leering at her like a starving dog. He always looked like he was starving but not for food._

_Suddenly her whole body screamed at her to move, and El managed to roll away at the same time as she opened her eyes and saw Four stab at her. He’d turned his whole arm into a blade, his preferred transformation, and he would’ve stabbed her right in the chest._

_“Found the bitch!”, he called. His voice was the coldest. The one that followed her into her dreams and gave her nightmares. Not even the bad guards sounded as cold as him._

_The next second, she was surrounded by her brothers. Four and Nine were smiling down at her, they enjoyed this the most. Five did too, but he just liked to play. Six was often just there and did what Four told him to._

_She had no other choice but use her powers, but she was so tired. She didn’t feel like she had much more energy to go on after they had chased her around the arena for what felt like hours now. She threw out her arm and all four of them went flying._

_Nine laughed when he got up. “What was that? That was pathetic!”_

_El scrambled to her feet, ready to run again, but then Five’s voice cut her off. “Don’t run!”_

_She froze in the middle of her movement, then stared at them with empty eyes. What had she been about to do?_

_“Now come here, Eleven.”_

_A small part of her thought that was a dumb idea, but her body was already moving on its own, marching her back to her brothers until she stood right in front of Five._

_“Now do the chicken dance.”_

_“Stop fucking around!”, Four snarled._

_Five rolled his eyes, but he snapped his fingers and El stopped the weird dance. It took her a moment to get back to her senses. A moment she didn’t have. With one quick motion, Four sliced her stomach with his blade arm. The pain didn’t set in at once. There was at first just a burning sensation, but it grew and grew until she couldn’t bear it. Her hands pressed to the wound to get relief. It felt weird. When she looked down her hands were slick with blood and they were holding…_

_It could’ve been seeing the parts that should be inside her body outside of it or just the pain, but she fell into darkness right then and there._

_When she woke up, the pain was gone. She was still on the floor, still covered in blood. Her brothers and Papa stood above her and next to her knelt a girl, her white scrubs stained with El’s blood. She pushed her blonde hair out of her face, leaving a streak of blood on her forehead. El didn’t know her name or number, but she’d seen her before. Five times. Every time the fight in the arena ended with her getting hurt badly. The girl got back to her feet and left without a word._

_“You’re dead”, Four told her. “Again.”_

 

But when they had escaped, she hadn’t held back anymore. ASHA agents were shooting at her friends, and there was no one to stop them before they went too far. She had had no other choice but do what Papa had ordered her so many times. She had killed people. So many people. And now she realized she had done exactly what he had wanted, had become exactly the person he always wanted her to be.

Tears burned in her eyes, and she tried desperately to blink them away. She let go of Mike and walked up to Papa until only Bill’s shield was between them, she could feel it, when she reached out her hand to grab a hold of the guards. “I am not your toy!”, she told Papa, her voice shaking.

“No”, Papa said. “You’re magnificent, Eleven.”

She threw the guard against the tunnel wall, making sure to hold back so he wouldn’t die. Then did the same to the rest of them before they could flee. Papa eyes never left hers as she worked, and he was happy, excited even. No, he was proud. If she had to look at him much longer, she was going to be sick after all.

“See, I told you, you had great potential.”

“I’m not who you think I am!”

With a burning glare she forced him to his knees, but he didn’t seem to mind, not even when she started to use her powers to choke him. There was a knowing smile on his face. “You wouldn’t do this if you weren’t”, he croaked. “This is exactly who you are.”

“El, don’t listen to him!”, Mike said.

“We have to go!”, Bill said. “F-f-f-finish him.”

And she wanted to. She wanted so badly to end his existence, but Papa was right. If she did it, she was letting him win, she was becoming the monster he always wanted her to be. Silent tears were running down her cheeks. He was still toying with her and she couldn’t stop it. Whatever she did, he would win.

“You are wrong”, she whispered as she loosened her grip on him. He coughed and spluttered, but he was breathing.

“El!”, Bill said. “You can’t just…”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence, as Mike pushed past them both and punched Papa in the face. A sickening crunch. Blood. Papa howled in pain. Then someone grabbed her arm and they were running. Mike was swearing loudly. Lightning was crackling. Shouting. Gun shots. A lot was happening, but El didn’t process any of it. She followed the others, but her mind stayed with Papa. Would she ever be free of him? If he could even manipulate her from a distance without her knowing, even his death might not stop him. There was a part of hermind reserved for him and as much as she tried to not listen to his voice, it was always there. Had she been his monster all along?

She tripped, but Mike kept her steady.

“Don’t look!”

Too late. One of the children they had freed was lying at her feet. A small hole between his eyebrows and blood pooling around him, soaking his once white clothes. Had this happened to all of them? No. Somebody must’ve made it out, right?

Mike pulled her forward and she stumbled after him, but the image had burned itself in her brain. That was her doing. The boy would still be alive, if it weren’t for them.

When they reached the garage, El tried not to look at the bodies too closely. Many of them were guards, but she saw a few smaller ones dressed in white. For some reason the floor was covered in water. Water and blood. It sprayed up and stained their pants as they ran through it.

“Left!”, Mike shouted, right before a guard appeared from behind one of the cars on their left. Stan’s lightning struck him right in the chest at the same time as El sent his gun flying.

Except for him they didn’t encounter any more guards, none that were conscious at least. The heavy door to the bunker stood open, outside the flood lights were on again and more guards were lying in the mud. Someone had indeed managed to escape.

“Cars”, Stan shouted.

El could barely hear him over the rain, but she saw the headlights coming through the woods.

“Reinforcements?”, Ben asked. He pressed a button on the camera and a compartment opened, letting him take out the tape and put it in his pocket where it would be safe from the rain. The camera he then turned into a gun.

Mike had let go of her hand and was typing on the door’s keypad. The door groaned but eventually swung shut again. “Stan, care to fry this now?”

“My pleasure.” Stan snapped his fingers and sent a small lightning bolt into it. The keypad hissed and smoked.

“Guys!”, Bill shouted. “The c-c-c-cars are alm-most here.”

She grabbed Mike’s hand, but immediately let go, when he yelped in pain. She was about to ask him, but he had already started pushing her with his other hand, so they could get out of the light and hide from whoever was coming.

What if they got trapped here? The door to the lab was shut for now, but it wouldn’t take them long to work it open, she assumed, and there were at least three cars coming their way. She looked at her friends, they all looked as tired as she felt. Stan, Bill and Mike had been using their powers non-stop since they went in and it was starting to drain them, she hadn’t completely recovered from trying to open the door and Ben had been running with a heavy camera and had lived through his worst fear. None of them looked like they could take another dozen ASHA agents.

The first car came to a halt just outside the cone of light. It wasn’t until Bev sprinted towards the gate that they recognized their friends.

Ben was the first to come out of hiding, running for Bev. He grabbed her around the middle and pulled her away from the fence.

She screamed and lifted him, and El already saw him flying through the air, but Bev recognized him in time and hugged him. “You’re alright!”, she said. “We heard the alarm and we… You’re alright!”

More of their friends were coming out of the cars, but Bill motioned for them to go back. “We need to get out of here. That d-d-door won’t hold them off for luh-luh-long.”

“We’ll follow your lead, Big Bill”, Richie said, climbing back into his van.

The exhaustion set in for real as soon as El sat down in the bus. Her limbs were so heavy, she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to get back up, but she was also drenched in rain and sweat and shivering.

“What happened in there?”, Dustin asked from behind the wheel. “Did you have to fight?”

“Did you get the other Supers out?”, Lucas asked.

“Was anybody hurt?”, Will asked.

“You should get out of those wet clothes.”

Max had settled into the seat in front of them and held out dry clothes to them. Without caring about who would see, El used her last energy to throw the rain poncho and her drenched sweater into the aisle of the bus and changed.

“What happened to your hand, Psycho?”

El had almost forgotten about Mike’s pain, when she’d grabbed for him. There wasn’t a lot of light in the bus, but Max had grabbed his hand and held it close to her face to get a better look. His knuckles were swollen and had already taken on a slight blueish hue. Was that from punching Papa? She’d assumed the crunching sound had been Papa’s nose but maybe not.

Mike pulled away. “I punched a fucker.”

“Papa.”

Lucas climbed into the seat next to Max and Will took a seat on the other side of the aisle. Lucas’ eyes widened at the mention of Papa. “You punched Brenner?”

“And you broke your hand?”, Max said, shaking her head in disapproval.

“It’s not broken”, Mike snapped. “I don’t think.”

“Hey assholes”, Dustin shouted. “Speak up so I can hear!”

“Mike punched some fuck called Brenner and broke his hand”, Max shouted back. “Keep your eyes on the road.”

“What road? There’s just mud and then there’s mud with trees.”

“The one without the trees”, Lucas called back.

“Oh really, Lucas? I would’ve driven straight into that pine tree if it weren’t for you.”

Lucas ignored him and turned back to them. “So, what happened in there?”

El let Mike tell them. She didn’t feel like the trip had been a success. Yes, they’d gotten the video, but what would they do with it? How would that help anyone? They had freed some of the other children, but many had been left inside and some had been killed in the escape.

And then there was Papa. Not only had she failed to stop him, she had also let herself become the weapon he wanted her to be. She was now just like her brothers, wasn’t she?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit short, sorry.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group is on the run and desperate for a plan, but they better prepare for some unpleasant company as well

The subjects stood lined up in front of him in their civilian clothes, only their collars remained to distinguish them from the people. They were still his proudest accomplishment. Why couldn’t Eleven have been as malleable as these four? He had to do further testing on her to find out where he had gone wrong. However, Gray had ordered Eleven and her group of deviants to be put down before they could do more damage. What a waste. All that time and resources spent on them and they were just going to throw it away because they had recordings of the lab? They would not know what to do with it and if it did somehow make their way to the public, they had people to fix it. They would tell them the truth, how dangerous these Supers were, that they were protecting the people.

“Your mission is simple”, he told them. “You find Eleven and the other Supers and you do what you have to do.”

“Do we terminate her this time, sir?”, Four asked. Four was… well, even Brenner thought he might have worked a bit too well on Four. Even though he had raised them as brothers, he had no doubt Four would turn around and put his brothers down without hesitation if he asked it of him. Total loyalty was admirable, but it made Brenner worry slightly what would happen if his loyalty would ever waver.

“Gray has ordered all of them dead, yes. However, if you could somehow coerce Eleven to cooperate, I would greatly appreciate that”, he said, looking at Five. “There is still some information to be gained from her.”

“Shame”, Nine muttered.

Brenner didn’t look at him but said: “Once she is of no use, you can do as you please with her.” It made Nine snigger.

While Four functioned perfectly but lacked all kind of human qualities, Nine regarded every mission as a pleasure cruise, and he derived pleasure from the most disgusting things. As far as it helped Brenner achieve his goals, he hadn’t put a stop to any of them. The key to keeping their loyalty was to keep them satisfied.

He took the key out of his pocket and beckoned Six to step forward. He always started with Six, deeming him the least dangerous. He and Five had retained their human qualities quite well, but in Six’s case that was no feat considering he had the intelligence of a human toddler.

Brenner pressed the key to Six’s collar, pressed the switch and took the collar off. Then turned to Five. There was always a brief moment after taking the collar of his subjects that he anticipated a rebellion, especially for Five it would be easy. One word and he had the upper hand, but Brenner believed Five to harbour actual love for him, maybe he regarded him as his real father. Pathetic. All of these Supers were pathetic.

“What happened to your nose, sir?”, Nine asked, as he stepped forward. After all these years he still hadn’t learned his manners.

Brenner pressed the button on the other side of the key and watched as the lanky man fell to his knees, his whole body shaking. If only the shocks would teach him a lesson.

But Nine was nothing if not resilient. Only moments after Brenner took the finger of the button, he was back on his feet, bowing his head so the collar could be taken off him.

Four was the last to step forward. At the beginning of this sibling project, Brenner had assumed Five to be the leader, given his power, and well… Brenner liked Five the best, but there was no room for favourism. However, Four had grown up to embody his own authority and inspire fear in his siblings. Eleven had been terrified of him, but his brothers were even more so. They would have never had the bravery to attack him.

“There is a vehicle ready for you in the garage”, he said, once he had placed the four collars on his desk. He stepped around it and retrieved one of Eleven’s old belongings. A plush tiger. He really had been too soft on her, hadn’t he? But she had been a baby and what harm could a plush toy do? He handed it to Four. “This was Eleven’s, you can use it to track her.” Then he took out a phone and gave that to him as well. “We expect you to check in with us every night. The mission is scheduled to last ten days at most. No going overtime. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir!”

His brothers repeated the words in unison, then they followed Four out of Brenner’s office. Ten days. Gray underestimated them, they wouldn’t need more than three to find and exterminate the threat.

* * *

 

They’d driven through the night with no real goal. The sun was already high in the sky when they finally pulled over in the middle of nowhere. Lucas hadn’t brought the bus to a stop yet, when Bill was already bolting from his truck and run a few feet to unzip his pants and do his business. He could hear Richie cackling as soon as he opened the doors.

“Should we wake him?”, Will asked and nodded his head to Dustin sleeping in the backrow.

Max shook her head. “He’s been up all night. We’ll wake him if anything important happens.”

As quiet as possible they all filed out. The rest of their group seemed to be happy for the break too. Stan was doing stretches and Mike was temporarily reminded of his dad. Bev was waxing poetically about her motorcycle they had left behind at the camp and how she needed to find herself a new one. As soon as Max stepped foot outside, she took off and stayed gone for a while. They all knew how much she hated being cooped up in the car especially when she wasn’t driving, so her taking off for a run was not surprising.

“It looks bad.”

El gingerly took his hand in hers, but the slight movement still hurt. It really did look bad. His hand had swollen up, the skin was a red-blue-purplish colour and it hurt like hell.

 “You should ask Eddie to fix it”, she said. 

“It’s not that bad”, Mike said, pulling his hand away. “I just punched someone, I don’t need Eddie to heal it.”

Punching people wasn’t a regular occurrence for him, but he was pretty sure, his hand shouldn’t be in this state, which was exactly why he didn’t want to ask Eddie for help. This was embarrassing enough as it was.

“Maybe you wouldn’t if you actually knew how to throw a punch”, Lucas said. “That shit is bad.”

“Shut up!”

“Then don’t be stupid about it and ask Eddie.”

“Ask me what?”

Eddie had stopped bickering with Richie long enough to hear his name mentioned and walked over. Last night he had been scared out of his mind, but he bounced back incredibly well. The colour had returned to his face, his hair was combed neatly, and he didn’t even look the tiniest bit tired. Mike wished he could feel as awake as Eddie looked.

“Mike hurt his hand”, El said.

When Eddie saw it, he swore loudly. “Why didn’t you say anything sooner? That must hurt.”

Not waiting for an invitation, he grabbed Mike’s hand, ignored his weak protests that it almost didn’t hurt at all and had him healed in no time. It was fascinating watching the discoloured skin return to normal as if it had just been paint that Eddie could wipe off, feeling the warmth engulf his hand and wash the pain away.

“Better?”

Mike smiled sheepishly. “Yeah. Thanks.” He shook his hand and flexed his fingers, something that had been impossible a moment ago. Despite having seen Eddie heal a few times now, it hadn’t seized to amaze him. With just a touch of his hand he could mend broken bones and fuse skin back together. In the matter of seconds, he could do what would take surgeons hours. It was truly amazing.

“What’s the plan now?”, Max asked, suddenly reappearing in their midst.

“Keep moving”, Mike said. “ASHA is definitely on our asses now.”

“But where to?”, Bev asked. “We have the video and what now?”

“We need people to see it”, Mikey said. “We need to get it on tv, we need people to get mad about it.”

But would they get mad at ASHA or them? Normal people hated Supers because they feared them, and Mike wasn’t sure that video would change anything about that. And how would they even get any news channel to air it? ASHA was part of the government, any channel that showed the footage was most likely going to get into trouble.

Stan sighed. “So, this is all for nothing. How would we even do that?”

It was rare for their big group to be completely silent, but they were now as they all realized they didn’t have a plan for this next part. They had gone through all that trouble and put themselves at the top of ASHA’s list and it hadn’t gotten them anywhere.

“Actually…” Will stepped forward, then took a step back again when he drew everyone’s attention. He focused on Mike and continued speaking only to him. “I had a vision about Nancy when we were on the road. She got a job in the city at a big network. Maybe she can help us.”

Having Will mention a vision about his sister, made Mike happy – the visions being the only way to figure out what his family was up to since calling them was too dangerous – but his smile soon fell, when he suggested asking Nancy for help. She probably would. She had been a pain in the ass a lot of the time, but when it really mattered she’d always helped him out, and he doubted that had changed much in the past few years, but this was dangerous. Nancy wouldn’t even know what she got herself into.

“I don’t know.”

“Who is Nancy?”, Eddie asked.

“My sister.”

It hadn’t come up with anyone but Richie, but Mike hadn’t expected the news that he had a sister to result in as much whispering and hushed discussion as it did. He looked back at Will, who seemed to understand his hesitation. He shrugged, smiling coyly. He wouldn’t have brought it up if they had literally any other option. Not only would this put Nancy in danger, Jonathan would become a target, too. Their siblings had been a couple for a while now – if Will’s visions could be trusted – and if Mike remembered correctly, Jonathan would cut off his own arm if he thought it would help Will.

“That’s great!”, Bev said.

“What do you suh-suh-say, M-mike?”

Their eyes met briefly, and Mike was taken aback by the sincerity in Bill’s question, like he would convince everyone of a different idea if Mike said no. Nancy was his sister and so this was his decision, no matter what the others thought. He was thankful, but at the same time really didn’t like to be burdened with making decisions for everyone.

“I guess, we can ask her.”

Richie cheered at that, and despite the bad feeling twisting his guts, that he might have doomed Nancy now, he let himself be excited by the thought of seeing her again. Usually he didn’t let himself think about the fact that he hadn’t seen his family in five years, but the reality of that hit him now. A lot could happen in five years. Nancy had graduated college, was a real adult now. Holly hadn’t been in school yet when he left and would now almost be a teenager. It was weird to think about it. Nancy and his parents probably wouldn’t have changed that much, but he wasn’t sure he would recognize Holly anymore. Would she remember him? He hoped he could find out some day.

* * *

 

The next time they took a break was later that day, the darkness had settled and they all huddled together in an empty parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. At first Bill had wondered why there were no other people around. It was late and a small town, but that was exactly why he’d expected some kids to hang out here who had nothing else to do, but as soon as he took a bite of his burger, it made sense. That was probably the worst burger he’d ever eaten and that included a burger Ben had made out of dirt.

Since last night the feeling in his stomach hadn’t gone away, the one that always tried to pull him away from danger. The nagging voice in his head to keep going, but Bill was slowly learning to deal with it. It was only natural they’d be in danger all the time now, right? He’d tell the others about it if the feeling got stronger. Although he felt a bit guilty not saying anything when they were on their way to meet Michael and Richie’s sister. If there was one thing he couldn’t be responsible for, it was someone else going through what he had gone through with Georgie. Nobody should know what it was like to lose a sibling.

Everyone was talking amongst themselves. Dustin, Lucas and Max were arguing about something and had been since the moment they’d gotten out of the bus. Mike, Ben, Stan and Will were discussing the video, and since they were so close Bill listened in. At least the conversation was taking his mind of the gruesome taste in his mouth.

“We need to see it before we give it to…”, Stan said, then let his words fade out as he forgot the name.

“Nancy”, Will helped.

“Right. We need to see it, make sure it shows what we want.”

“And what if it doesn’t?”, Mike said. “There isn’t anything we can do about it.”

Speaking of the video, made Bill think back to the lab. It was hard to believe that had only been yesterday. Ben and Bev hadn’t talked much about it, but Bill hadn’t expected it to be like that. The place had been a maze and they had only gotten to see a small part of it. Just like they’d only managed to free a small portion of the kids inside. They should’ve done more.

“Hey El”, he said, suddenly remembering something. The way she’d slammed those doors shut, the expression on her face, when she’d told them the kids inside were bad. She looked up at him, ketchup smeared on her chin. “Who w-w-w-w-was that in the cells? Th-th-the ones you didn’t w-want us to op-p-pen?”

She wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her jacket, her eyes taking on that same hard look again. “My brothers.”

Bill almost choked on his burger, not expecting that answer at all. Brothers? She was born in that lab, how did she have brothers? The others seemed just as confused by her answer, even Michael who otherwise seemed to know everything about her.

Lucas groaned. “They are not your brothers, El.”

“They are like me.”

“Just because all of you were stolen from your parents and brought up in that lab, doesn’t mean they are your brothers.” He crumpled up the wrapper of his burger and threw it in the garbage can a few feet away. It made a perfect arch and went right in. “And you’re nothing like them. You never tried to burn me to crisps for the fun of it.”

“You know them, too?”, Ben asked. He had obviously not known about these brothers, or he wouldn’t have tried to set one of them free.

“I’ve met them in the arena. Brenner was obsessed with them, probably because they listen to his every command. I bet he wanted us all to end up like them.”

El nodded. Bill wished, she would’ve finished the guy off when she’d had the chance. The way he’d talked to her had made his skin crawl and the more he learned about the guy, the more he hated his guts.

“They are Supers who work for ASHA?”, Bev asked.

“I don’t know about work, but they definitely help with the training.”

“But that doesn’t necessarily make them bad, does it?”, Will asked. “You fought them, too.”

“It’s different”, Lucas said.

El nodded again. “I would have died many times”, she said, casually as if that was just a normal thing. “But I was always healed before I could.”

“What?”, Michael snapped. He probably wished, he’d done more than just punch that Brenner guy. Bill certainly did.

Stan looked at Lucas. “You too?”

He shook his head. “I had normal training sessions with them. One on One, sometimes two at once.”

“How m-m-many are th-there?”

“Four, Five, Six and Nine”, El said.

“Four is the worst of them. I really wish I could have made the ground swallow him whole”, Lucas grumbled. “He can transform every part of his body, and his favourite is…”

“His arms become swords”, El said. “He likes cutting you.”

“And Nine likes to burn you”, Lucas continued.

“And Five makes you do things, and Six spits.”

Dustin choked on a laugh that he tried to cover up and had a small coughing fit. Lucas hit him on the back, so hard his cap fell off.

“He does”, he said. “And it’s not funny. It’s some kind of acid or poison. Burns worse than fire.”

Bill was suddenly very glad El had stopped them in time from opening their cells. They could’ve gotten surrounded by Brenner and these four guys and never made it out. Bill had fought the odd Super, but it usually ended like their fight with Michael and the others, where each side would rather run and hide before ASHA was alerted. He had a feeling a fight with either of those four ‘brothers’ would be very different.

“Lucas is right”, he said, giving El the best smile he could muster right now. “Th-they aren’t your b-brothers.”

Real siblings – no matter if they grew up together or were even blood related – would never treat each other like that. He tried not to get lost in his thoughts about Georgie. They never had figured out what his power would’ve been, but Bill liked to believe his brother would’ve gotten to fly just like he’d wanted to. Georgie would’ve loved that. Stan, who always seemed to know when Georgie was on his mind, slipped his hand into Bill’s and held it tight.

“We should get going”, Richie said. He flicked the butt of his cigarette away and threw his car keys at Eddie, who reacted quickly and caught them. “You’re up, Spaghetti.”

Eddie rolled his eyes at the nickname. “Fine, but driver picks the music and I am fucking tired of listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

“Oh thank God”, Ben whispered, who apparently had been just as sick of it.

“Hey! You both have no taste. If you plan on putting on ABBA again, you better give me back those keys right now.”

Eddie held them up, then seemed to realize that wouldn’t put them out of Richie’s reach and quickly stuffed them into the pocket of his jacket. “Yeah right, as if you aren’t the one singing the loudest when Dancing Queen comes on.”

Bev took one last drag of her cigarette before she flicked hers away, too. “The loudest and the most off-key. I see another sleepless night in our future, Ben.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eleven's "brothers" are of course the Bowers Gang, but I guess the numbers thing can be a bit confusing, so if anyone had any doubts  
> Four is Henry   
> Five is Victor   
> Six is Belch  
> Nine is Patrick


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group finally makes it to the big city and are about to meet up with Nancy when ASHA catches up with them

“When you told me to drive, I assumed you were going to sleep.”

Despite Richie’s obnoxious singing, Ben and Bev had fallen asleep pretty much instantly and Eddie had prepared himself for a quiet night of driving with only his thoughts for entertainment, but now, an hour later, it was clear Richie was not planning on sleeping any time soon.

He’d tuned down his boisterous singing to a quiet but steady hum, so he wouldn’t wake up Ben and Bev in the back, but his fingers were still drumming along to the various 80s songs from Eddie’s tape. More than once had he pulled a cigarette out of his pocket, but Eddie had cleared his throat every time he came close to lighting it and Richie had put it back. He knew he couldn’t actually stop Richie from smoking in his own car, and he wasn’t going to get into an argument with him about it now, not when Ben and Bev were sleeping, so he was grateful Richie didn’t provoke it. Grateful and a little surprised, to be honest.

“I love watching you drive my baby.”

Eddie raised an eyebrow, about to tell him how stupid he sounded, when Richie seemed to realize the same and resolved in a heap of giggles.

“Are you on something? You’ve been oddly cheerful.” It was probably those disgusting burgers. He’d never heard of food poisoning resulting in delirium, but weirder things had happened.

“I’m just happy.”

Eddie frowned. How was he happy? They were on the run from the government who would probably kill them on sight. They had nowhere to go and a plan that was flimsy at best. If he thought too much about it, Eddie felt like crying. “Why?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Richie sighed contently. “We’re off on an adventure, finally something is happening. And I’m going to meet my sister.”

He’d said it as an afterthought, but judging by the huge smile on his face, this was the true reason for his happiness. Not only did he have a brother now, he also had sisters, and probably adoptive parents who would love to meet him. That was more family than Eddie had ever had. He swallowed the bitter taste that thought left in his mouth. If anyone deserved it, it was Richie. At least his mother had cared for him in her own twisted way, Richie’s parents hadn’t given two shits about him.

“Do you know what she’s like?”

“Mike said some stuff, but… not really. Apparently, she’s smart, like straight As and shit.”

“At least someone in your family is”, Eddie teased which made Richie lean over to flick his ear. “Hey! Stop distracting me from driving.”

“I got As too, dipshit.”

“Really?”

“Don’t sound so surprised.”

Eddie quickly stopped gaping at him and put on a smile instead. School had never been something they discussed in their group. It was just one of those topics that bummed everyone out and was too outlandish for their lifestyle. So how was he supposed to know that Richie got good grades? This was the guy who got injured chasing after wild animals and who once got a pea stuck up his nose. Well, if he thought about it, that only made him reckless and annoying, it didn’t exactly negate his intelligence, but it was still hard to picture Richie as a good student.

“I’m sorry.”

Richie ran a hand through his hair. “Ah, it’s alright, I get it. You see these dashing good looks and that’s all you see. A piece of meat. You don’t expect me to be whole package and have the brains too.”

Eddie snorted and quickly pressed a hand to his mouth to muffle his laughter. Richie looked over his shoulder, then pressed a finger to his lips as if it hadn’t been him who made him laugh in the first place. They shared a smile, before Richie went back to being serious.

“Do you think she’ll like me?”

“Why wouldn’t she?”

Richie shrugged. “Because I’m annoying and she seems to have her whole life figured out and we’re going to come and mess it all up for her.”

“You’re not annoying.”

This time Richie laughed. “Yeah right, you’re the one who keeps telling me to shut the fuck up.”

Eddie opened his mouth to protest then closed it again. He couldn’t deny that, but that was different. That was their thing. They bickered and fought, and he’d tell Richie to shut up, but he’d never do it and it was fun for both of them. Sure, Richie got under his skin with the flirting and touching, but he didn’t know why it bothered Eddie so much and he wasn’t about to tell him.  

With Richie now staring at him, Eddie felt his face heat up and hoped it was too dark in the van for Richie to notice. “That’s different.”

“How so?”

“It just is.”

“Then why do you tell me to shut up if it isn’t because I’m being annoying?”

“Somebody has to.”

“Why?”

“Richie?”

“Yes, Darling?”

“Shut up!”

There was no heat behind his words, but it worked all the same. When he could still feel Richie’s eyes on him, Eddie glanced over, worried he might’ve taken his words the wrong way, but found that dork just smiling at him.

“What?”

Richie shook his head. “Nothing.”

And yet he was still staring at him. Somehow the quiet staring was worse than the probing questions, and Eddie wasn’t sure if he was doing it to piss him off, if this was his new way of provoking him.

“Eddie?”

“Mh-mhm.”

“Will you hold my hand?”

He almost choked on nothing, sure he had misheard, but no, there in the space between them was Richie’s outstretched hand. Eddie’s fingers twitched with want. It wasn’t like he’d never held Richie’s hand before. They dragged each other around a lot, sometimes Richie would just take his if he felt like it, if he needed physical contact and somehow this was different. This was Richie asking, and the asking part was important even if Eddie couldn’t quite understand why.

“Why?”, he finally said, his voice too high and his heart racing.

“I’m scared of the dark.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Will you hold it anyway?”

He took a deep breath and glanced over again, fully expecting Richie to be grinning or having that glint in his eyes, the one that meant he was up to something. He wasn’t.

The hand in the space between them twitched, beckoning him to take it. Eddie hesitated, waiting for Richie to change his mind or drop his mask. He waited so long it was starting to be ridiculous and still, Richie hadn’t taken his request back.

He let go of the wheel, wiped the sweat on his jeans and let it hover over Richie’s. It was just handholding. It was nothing. And yet when Richie touched him, and his fingers fell into place between Eddie’s, his breath hitched.

They didn’t talk after that, and Eddie was grateful because he didn’t think he could form actual words while driving when Richie was drawing circles on the back of his hand with his thumb and his heart was thundering in his chest.

Even much later when Richie had eventually fallen asleep, his head resting against the window, his mouth slightly open and hair hanging in his face, and Eddie’s arm was starting to hurt, he wouldn’t let go. This moment was his to enjoy as long as it lasted. He got to soak it all up and remember it when Richie was being impossible again and the possibility of them being anything other than friends seemed to be nothing more but a fever dream.

* * *

 

Even sitting five rows ahead, Max could hear Richie lamenting about the loss of his precious car. Bill had stopped a while ago, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t silently sulking while staring out the window across from her. The way they were acting one could think their entire family had just died.

“Seriously”, she whispered. “It’s a car! Just get over it.”

Her hands went up to pick at her hat, making sure all of her hair was still tucked underneath it. It was too hot in the train and her head was starting to itch. Stupid ASHA and their stupid search. This time they’d even gotten sketches made of them. It was a miracle they hadn’t gotten spotted yet, but maybe people really were that stupid and a simple thing like splitting up into smaller groups on the train was all it took not to get recognized.

“Well, there are a lot of memories attached to those cars”, Stan said.

He was sitting with his back pressed against the window, one knee pulled onto his seat and his eyes closed, completely relaxed except for his hands curled into tight fists in his lap.

“Gross.”

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Maxine”, he said, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. She rolled her eyes at the mention of her full name even if he couldn’t see it. “Bill bought that truck right as soon as he turned 16, after having saved up for it for over a year. It was the only way for us to get out of our small town and see a bit of the world. Well, and then it turned into our only way to be free and our home. Living in a car doesn’t sound so bad until you do it for months.”

She could kind of get it, but the only thing she could think about after this little anecdote was how stupid they had been to keep the same car all this time. She had stolen so many different cars over the years, she couldn’t even keep count. The bus might have been the one they’d kept the longest, and now it was stood next to the van and the truck in the parking lot of a supermarket, waiting either for ASHA to find it or someone else to pick the lock and take it for a spin.

“Then why aren’t you crying about it?”

Stan shrugged. “Bill thinks it’s the car that got out us out of there, I know it was him.”

“God, you two are so cheesy”, she groaned. Maybe not at Mike and El level cheesy, but goddamn cheesy all the same. Their whole story about best friends falling in love with each other in a small town and then escaping said town because of the parents’ wrath was a cliché, although in their case it didn’t completely fit the pattern. They hadn’t run away because their parents were against their love, but because Stan’s had found out about him being a Super and called ASHA, and they hadn’t been childhood friends either, but rather loners who had no one else. Max didn’t know the whole story yet, but she was sure, she’d find out eventually. She wasn’t all that interested to begin with, but as soon as she figured out there were secrets being kept, her curiosity had spiked. One day, she’d get the whole thing. 

At least the cheesiness had drawn Bill back to the present. “Are we there soon?”

She looked out of the window even though she’d never been to the city or surroundings, or if she had, she didn’t remember any of it right now. “I guess so. It feels like we’ve been on here forever.”

“Want to go out there and run alongside the train instead?”, Stan asked.

“You joke, but I absolutely would rather do that than sit in here and wait. Waiting is so boring.”

It was hard to sit still for so long, when she could’ve reached their destination in a matter of minutes. When she was still on her own, she’d zoomed across the country so many times just because she could. Her home had always felt like a prison to her, everyone was so slow, and she had to keep pace with them or be discovered. So when she left, or rather fled from her stepbrother’s threats that he would call ASHA if she didn’t get out of his life, she had felt free. Finally, things were going at her own speed, she could go everywhere and do whatever she wanted. That feeling had lasted for all but a month, until she learned, she’d swapped her prison for another cage. Bigger, yes, but still a cage.

She’d tried to leave the country, to see other places, to see if all those myths were true that Supers in other countries didn’t face the same discrimination they did, but Supers weren’t allowed to board planes or ships and she wasn’t fast enough to run over water. Many times, she’d stood at the northern or the southern border, always hoping that this time she would make it, only to fail again and again.

To secure the country against Supers from the outside, the borders had been fitted with some kind of invisible barrier. There were the walls and guarded posts, but they wouldn’t have stopped Max, but this… this other thing, it stripped her of her powers and made it impossible for her to pass the border unseen. It was probably a similar technology that ASHA used for their collars and bracelets.

“If you could go anywhere, where would you go?”, she asked.

Normally these questions were reserved for times when she and Lucas were alone, but now they were in a train, headed to the city to change the world. She didn’t want to get her hopes up too much, but she had to believe it could work. It just had to. She had to be able to escape this cage too.

“I don’t kn-know”, Bill said. She could tell he thought the question was utterly stupid. There was a certain bleakness to her friends that had grown up with Supers for parents, for those who had learned their limited options early in life. Mike and Will were the same, never talking about the future or the sacrifices they had made to still be here today.

“If I could get out of here, there isn’t a place I wouldn’t go”, Lucas said, smiling knowingly.

They’d planned this future, every minute detail of it. If they would ever be truly free, they were going to see the world, all of it. They’d take a plane for the first time in their lives, they’d cross the Atlantic, get a car and go on a real road trip. Just thinking about it, made her giddy again. It was a dream, she knew, but maybe if she wanted it hard enough it could become true.

“I’d like to go hiking”, Stan said, his voice suddenly lower as if he was afraid anyone might overhear these unthinkable dreams he had. “I want to go hiking in New Zealand, and in the Alps. Seeing Tibet might be cool too.”

“That’s… cool.” Max hadn’t taken him to be a fan of the outdoors. Sure, they pretty much lived in cars and abandoned buildings, but Stan still found a way to look very put together and prim. There was just something about him that didn’t exactly scream ‘my biggest dream is to go hiking’.

Bill seemed surprised too. “Tibet?”

“I saw it on television once. It looked nice.”

“Ok-k-k-kay. If I c-could go anywhere, I…” He stopped. Like someone who had never thought about that before in his life. Lucas had been similar, the first time they’d done this, but he had spent a good portion of his life locked in a lab. “I’d g-go to Europe. Go on a road trip.”

“That’s our plan”, Lucas said. “Go to Europe…”

“Rent a car”, Max continued. “or steal one, whatever, and see a different country every day. Must be wild.”

“Yeah”, Stan agreed. “That sounds good.”

“You should come with us.”

She’d gone completely into planning mood again. It would be great to have some company on that trip, but she knew if they ever got that freedom, that all her friends had homes to go back to, it would be hard to convince any of them to travel the world with them. Bill and Stan were different though. They could come.

“Yeah sure”, Bill said, sarcasm staining his words. Max opted to ignore it. 

* * *

 

Sitting by himself wasn’t so bad. With Richie in the front and him all the way in the back of the car, he couldn’t even hear him and Bev. Sometimes their ridiculous discussions about why Donald Duck doesn’t wear pants or what Nirvana’s music would taste like, were too much for Mike to handle.

And he wasn’t completely alone. There was a snoring, old lady in the window seat beside him and Dustin and Will in the row across from him. Dustin was leaning against the window, pretending to sleep, holding Will’s hand firmly while the shorter boy was slumped against him, also seemingly asleep, but Mike knew they were trying to get the most accurate visions of where to go once the train pulled into the station. He could hear them whispering every time Will stirred and came out of a vision.

They were the real reason Mike had chosen to sit in the back. He couldn’t exactly say what it was about Will, but lately he felt drawn to him. Whenever they were splitting into groups, he found himself next to Will. Maybe it was because they shared a secret, because he wanted to make sure Will wasn’t going insane worrying about Michael. He hadn’t brought it up again, not even when they were alone, but Mike was sure it was still gnawing at him. He’d promised to help him keep Michael save, but in reality, he didn’t know how to do that, not with the vague description of Will’s vision. He tried to keep an eye out for any danger but knew Bill would sense it way before anything could happen. He had tried to stay in reach of the other boy, so he could be his shield, but that was easier said than done with Michael constantly wandering off with El.

Now, he mostly hoped Will’s vision would never come true. That happened sometimes, he heard, so why couldn’t that be the case this time. A smaller, more sobering part of him, was preparing to be there for Will when the time came. He would need someone after the loss of his best friend and Mike thought he’d be the person for the job. The others were either close with Michael and would be devastated too, or not close enough with Will. Although he liked Michael, he hadn’t made an effort to get to know him. Before Will’s revelation there hadn’t really been time and now… Well, he was prepared to take that burden and take care of his friends, but he knew he wasn’t strong enough to do that and grieve a friend at the same time, so he kept his distance.

Eventually the train pulled into the station. As he grabbed his bag from under the seat, holding it tightly, knowing the worth of the tape inside, he looked outside and was taken aback by the masses of people. For years now, they had stuck to small towns and truck stops and their asylum, but now they were in the middle of a metropole. There were people everywhere, a constant buzz of conversation and cars in the street. When they stepped onto the track, he could see the same feeling on El and Ben’s faces. Maybe El had never been in a city before in her life.

“Alright”, Richie said, he’d gone for the usual face of the pretty, young woman, and was already getting ogled by a group of men passing them. “Where to now?”

“I’m not exactly sure”, Will admitted. “I know what their building looks like and some landmarks around it, but I don’t know this city.”

“I’ll just get us directions”, Michael said, grabbing Dustin’s hand.

They stood waiting for him for what felt like minutes but was probably just a few seconds. Mike couldn’t help but feel watched. ASHA was looking for them and they were standing in a bustling train station. They really needed to get going.

When he let go of Dustin’s hand, Michael seemed a bit shaken but happy. “Okay, follow me. It’s not that far.”

As much as they tried to fly under the radar, they were still a large group of young adults, that didn’t seem to belong in this city. Heck, they didn’t even seem to belong together. Every time he made eye contact with someone, Mike could feel his heart beating in his throat, expecting them to run to the nearest telephone booth and call ASHA, or worse, pull a gun out and start shooting at them.

His anxiety only increased, when he looked back and saw Bill scanning the area with one hand pressed to his stomach. If Bill looked around, something was up.

“Guys!” It was hard to get everyone’s attention with Dustin excitedly yapping about something or other and the sounds of the city pushing down on them. “G-guys!”, Bill tried again, louder.

It was the sound of cars honking and tires screeching that eventually got their attention. After years of being on the run, of being attacked and fighting back, now they froze. People around them were screaming and running, as the sleek, black Mercedes barrelled towards them ignoring all street lights and obstacles in its way.

 _Don’t use your powers in public!_ His mother’s voice rang in his head. Something she’d always tell him before sending him off to school in the morning. _Keep your head down and blend in, Mike._

He could see the same struggle on the faces around him. If this was ASHA they had to fight, but if it was just some crazy driver they couldn’t expose themselves like that.

Mike pressed closer to Michael and Will in the front, when the car came to a halt only a few feet away from them. El gasped, when the doors flew open, the young driver not caring about the mess he’d caused, his cold eyes boring into her.

“T-to me!”, Bill shouted, but it was too late. The shield he threw up was too small to cover all of them. There were four of them. El’s brothers. The biggest of them with short black hair and dull eyes, got out of the back. While the rest of them were doing a grand entrance, leering menacingly, watching them shy away, this one got right down to business.

He made a heaving sound and the next thing Mike knew, he was covered in greenish spit that melted his jacket right off his back. Gross.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to put the actual fight in here too, but that made the chaper too long. I hope you take that cute little Reddie moment as apology for waiting another chapter for shit to hit the fan


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the group fights Bowers Gang, Mike figures out a new way to use his power and someone pays a high price

As they watched Mikey’s jacket sizzle and fall off him, they snapped out of their trances. ASHA had found them, and they’d sent their most dangerous weapons after them. He gave El’s hand a quick squeeze, wishing he could keep her by his side, but just a moment later she was pulling away from him.

The street had cleared fast, people screaming and shouting about Supers as they fled, cars being left abandoned. This was how Supers had become modern day monsters. Mike hadn’t thought he’d ever find himself in the middle of all this. He shook the thoughts off, jogging over to Bill to get behind his shield. He hated covering like this, but knew it was better if his friends could focus on fighting instead of protecting him.

Despite Mikey’s power, Eddie was carefully removing the remains of his jacket and shirt to check for any wounds. Just outside of the shield, Lucas and Stan stood back to back fighting a wall of fire. It was two against one, but it seemed to still be an even fight. The tall guy, Nine, was laughing and joking as he easily dodged any attacks thrown his way. Mike noticed he was slowly but steadily advancing, always getting a step closer when he dodged.

El had taken on the leader, holding him back with her powers. Beverly was throwing trash cans at him, even ripped out a street lamp to hit him with, but every time he was about to get hit, his body transformed into slick steel, leaving Beverly’s weapons dented without taking any damage himself.

Richie was a blur as he shifted from one form to another, sometimes taking flight then barrelling towards the guy, who’d spit at Mikey, at full speed. He was fast, but whenever he got too close, Six would spit acid and send him running again. Somewhere in there was Max, Mike knew, even if he couldn’t see her. He saw her in Nine suddenly stumbling, or in El getting pushed out of the way when Four pushed through her hold and almost sliced her in half with his arm, that had suddenly grown a sharp edge.

“Vic, for fucks sake!”, he bellowed. “Do something!”

Five, who’d hung back, leisurely leaning against the car, rolled his eyes. He said something, Mike couldn’t hear over the roaring flames that engulfed Bill’s shield for a second, but when the flames disappeared, he got a good look of Max. She stood limply next to Five, face slack, eyes staring blankly into space. _Five can make you do things_ , he remembered. He was in her head.

“Here”, Ben said. Mike turned around to see him handing Mikey a gun, who left Bill’s shield and joined the fight.

He took a shot at Five, but he only grinned smugly as Max disappeared then reappeared at his side and the bullet hit Mikey square in the chest.

“I’m bulletproof, asshole”, Mikey said.

“So am I now”, Five said. “Thanks to your little friend.”

With a roar, Lucas flung a chunk of asphalt towards him, but Max pushed Five out of harms way and he only flattened the expensive car. “Let her go!”

“No”, he said, then his voice took on a softer, alluring tone. “Attack your bulletproof friend.”

Lucas went slack for just a moment then turned towards Mikey and with a stomp of his feet, had Mikey engulfed in asphalt and dirt up to the knees.

“Lucas, stop that!”, Will shouted, but it didn’t seem as if Lucas could still hear him.

“Dustin”, Bill said. He kept his eyes on the fighting in front of him, his arms outstretched to keep the shield up. “I need your h-h-help or that g-guy will pick us off one by one.”

It was like something had shut off as soon as Dustin grabbed Bill. He could still sense the minds of the people around him inside the shield, but the enormous pressure from everyone else in the city had lifted. He’d tried to suppress his power as soon as they’d entered the city because it was just too much, but he was never successful at shutting everyone out completely. He could always still feel them there, maybe that was how people with a tinnitus felt.

With Max and Lucas switching sides involuntarily, they were now at a major disadvantage. El and Bev had gotten nowhere fighting against Four, Stan could barely keep Nine at bay and Richie hadn’t made much progress with Six either. Things were not looking good.

“Eleven”, Five said. He didn’t get more out before she pressed her hands to her ears, eyes boring into Four as she screamed, sending him flying with just her mind. As long as she couldn’t hear him, he had no hold over her, but for how long could she really block him out?

Mike didn’t think when he stepped out of the shield, he just wanted to help. The minds around him rushed back in, flooding him momentarily until he got a grasp on it. With so many people around, it took him a while to filter out the unimportant ones. El’s he felt first, then Richie’s, then Bev, Mikey and Stan. Lucas and Max, he could barely recognize, their minds having gone into something that felt like white noise. He wondered if he could snap them out of it if he pushed in further, if he went looking for them.

Then he felt their opponents. Nine’s mind was pulsating and swirling, hard to grasp, not a visual or verbal thinker, but a human embodiment of hunger, urge and want. Mike didn’t want to delve deeper than that.

Six was calm but unguarded. Mike didn’t even push, and he was in, could feel the adrenaline flowing through Six as he tried to keep up with Richie. With every new transformation annoyance and anger increased and while Six was calculating his moves right now, following learned combat patterns drilled into him over years, he was bound to lose his cool soon. Maybe that would be Richie’s chance.

Four had high mental guards, but he was preoccupied fighting the girls and wasn’t expecting a mental attack, so it took Mike much less effort to break through them. Behind them Mike was surprised at how easily he predicted El and Bev’s moves, always ready to dodge or counter them before they’d even fully executed them.

And lastly there was Five, whose presence Mike could sense, but it was well hidden behind thick mental walls. As soon as he pushed against them, he could sense Five’s attention shift towards him. Other than El nobody had ever felt him use his powers, but Five knew he was there.

Fine, if he couldn’t spy on him, he was going to draw his attention, hopefully preventing him from using his powers on anyone else. It was hard drowning out the fighting, letting it all slip away to fully concentrate on Five. Hard but not impossible. He’d done this only once before and even then, he’d been surprised how well it had worked on Bev. He threw himself against the wards with everything he had, forcing his way into Five’s mind. There was a struggle, but not much, as if Five didn’t take his efforts serious enough. Once inside he felt lost. Five’s mind wasn’t blank, but it was slick, well-prepared for mental attacks and Mike couldn’t find anything to grab a hold of, but he could sense Five’s slight amusement with the whole situation.

_You’re in. Now what?_

Mike didn’t bother replying to him. He wasn’t sure if Five could sense him in the same way he did, if he could he would already know and if he couldn’t, Mike didn’t see a point in telling him. That simple thought was his hook, his way in. Focusing on it led him to find that voice, to find the hidden thoughts.

It turned out Five was a verbal thinker behind all his barriers, the easiest minds to read. His intentions were clear: toy with them a bit, grab El, destroy the footage and kill the rest of them. Right now, he had his sights set on Richie, who was gaining on Six more and more. Mike wanted to warn him, but knew there was no way, he needed all his concentration to not get turned into a pile of acid.

Just as Five opened his mouth to speak, Mike decided that if screaming could work once, it might work twice. He took a deep breath, then directed all his anger at Five, imagined it as a dagger going straight for his brain, slicing through those intentions.

He wasn’t sure it had done anything but surprise Five, but for the moment it was enough to distract him from Richie.

_You’re turning out to be a real pain in the ass._

Five’s amusement was gone now that he’d found someone who didn’t like to play. Mike could feel his attention shift to him, could feel Five’s power inside his mind. It was a part that felt sticky and sweet like honey, that had the ability to pull him in and lose himself. The more he focused on it, the more he could understand how Five used it, coating his words, his thoughts, his wishes in this stuff and capturing other people’s minds with it. He was doing exactly that right now.

 _It won’t work,_ Mike told him, although he wasn’t sure at all that he wouldn’t get caught just because he knew how it worked. He tried to block Five’s power from him in some way but couldn’t. He needed a different plan, and he needed it quick.

Now that he had an in, he started to rummage through Five’s mind, not knowing what he was looking for but desperately needing to find something. He’d done this before even if he wouldn’t admit it to anyone. He’d been so suspicious of Dustin and Max that he’d searched through their mind, seen their whole lives and only then had he decided to trust them. He would’ve done the same to Lucas and El, if El hadn’t sensed him and for the first time he’d realized how violating this was. With Five he didn’t care though.

Still he couldn’t help but pity the guy as memories raced passed him in his search. Like El, he’d been a baby when ASHA got their hands on him and had been raised in the lab. He’d been disciplined a million times for using his power on ASHA workers, or tortured would be another word. Mike saw his attachment to his ‘brothers’, but there was no love there. Fear and disgust and a deep understanding that they belonged together and needed each other but no love. He saw Five’s training, how he quickly went from losing most fights to winning them all. He even caught a glimpse of El in those memories and it reminded Mike what he had to do.

He decided to focus on the memories that held the most pain, really tried to bring out the hopelessness and abandonment Five had felt and he pulled them to the front of his mind, shoved Five’s nose in it and tried to make him relive it.

* * *

 

Eddie didn’t know where to look. Everywhere one of his friends was hurting. Just outside of their shield Stan was getting tired and slower every second, Nine blasting him with one fireball after the other, and even though Stan had hit him once or twice, the pain of his wounds didn’t slow Nine down at all. Lucas, still under the influence of Five, was chucking rocks at Mikey, who might not take any damage but could still feel the pain of it.

The only one who seemed to do any real progress was Richie. He’d gone through multiple forms to get closer to Six – that wasp actually came in handy, Eddie noticed – and managed to do some damage without getting dissolved by acidic saliva. Six was now bleeding from a deep bite wound to his leg.

“It’s happening”, Will muttered, drawing Eddie’s attention away from Richie. His eyes were locked on Mike, who’d stepped out of Bill’s shield to have some kind of staring contest with Five. “It’s like my vision.”

“Sh-sh-shut up”, Bill snapped. “It’s not.”

“What are you talking about?”, Dustin asked.

“I’m going to drag him back here”, Will said, pushing past Eddie and Ben to get to Mike, but Eddie was quick enough to grab him before he could leave the shield.

“You can’t!” Whatever he was doing with Five, it was only possible because he wasn’t in the shield and since Five hadn’t taken a hold of anyone else since Mike started doing what he did, it seemed to be working too. “We need him to keep going.”

Will struggled against his hold with much more force than Eddie had expected, so he was glad when Ben grabbed his other arm.

“Let me go! Let me go! I have to save him!”

“Will, stop it”, Ben said softly.

Dustin looked concerned, but he still had to hold on to Bill and wasn’t able to help them. “Will, what the fuck is going on? Mike is fine.”

“You don’t u-…”

Suddenly all of the fight went out of him and he fell into Eddie’s arms, headbutting him in the process. With the unexpected weight on him now, Eddie stumbled and fell to the ground, where he pushed Will off him. The boy just stayed there as if he had fallen unconscious.

“Huh”, Dustin said, looking down at his friend. “Never thought that would ever come in handy.”

Ben gently prodded Will’s shoulder. “He’s just having a vision, right?”

A scream of pain made Eddie look up again to find Mikey had fallen over, as much as he could with his legs still trapped in the asphalt. He wasn’t sure how much more Mikey could take, Ben seemed to think the same thing.

“I have an idea”, he said. “But I’m not sure if it’s going to work.”

“Any idea is good enough right now”, Eddie said.

“We need to get Lucas into the shield, maybe he’ll snap out of it then. He’ll be out of reach.”

The four of them looked at each other, no one had a better idea, so it was worth a try. Lucas was still relatively close to them, maybe four feet away, but they needed to grab him quickly before he could use his powers on them. Unlike Mikey they wouldn’t bounce back from a boulder to the head so easily.  

He took a deep breath and tried to pump himself up. Usually he would stay here during fighting, let Bill protect him and fix up everyone who needed his help. It was scarier than he thought to leave Bill’s shield. “On three”, he told Ben.

“One…two…three.”

As they ran, Eddie felt the heat of Nine’s fire in the air. He didn’t know how close he was to it and thought it would be best not to find out, but he couldn’t stop imagining it licking at his skin. The thought alone was enough to propel him further.

He reached Lucas a second before Ben did, grabbing him around the middle and started to pull. Ben took one of his arms and together they managed quite well, although the element of surprise might have worked in their favour too. It was only on the last stretch that Lucas started to struggle, but by then they’d gotten into Stan’s reach, who gave them the one final push and they all fell into the shield.

With a painful howl Stan followed them, his whole right arm engulfed in flames. He rolled on the ground until the flames died, but the smell of burned skin lingered and that on top of the sight of raw and blackened flesh was enough to make Eddie gag. He swallowed hard, but the nausea wouldn’t go away.

“I c-could’ve just stretched my sh-sh-sh-shield!”, Bill screamed, “Fuck!”

Stan kept on whimpering, Ben wrestled with Lucas until he was sitting on top of him and Will was slowly coming out of his vision. Everything was a mess right now.

“Eddie!”, Bill snapped. “Heal him now!”

He’d never talked to Eddie in this tone before and it snapped him out of his momentary trance. When he touched Stan’s arm, he started gagging again but pulled it together. Stan was screaming in agony, but he had to ignore it and run his hands all over the burned skin, knowing fully well that the healing process might hurt just as much as the burn. Thankfully his powers worked fast, and the screams subsided to whimpers and then finally stopped.

“St-t-tan?”

Bill couldn’t look, he was too preoccupied keeping the shield up, now that Nine was unleashing all his fire on it, but he needed to know.

“I’m okay”, Stan said. His clothes were singed in several spots but no deeper burns. He was exhausted but alive. “Thanks, Eddie.”

He patted his shoulder. “Anytime.”

“What’s going on?” Lucas voice was sluggish, his face a question mark as he looked up at Ben, but he was clearly himself again. Thank fuck, Ben’s idea had worked.

Ben got off him and helped him to his feet. “Five got you.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, could you maybe let Mikey go now?”, Eddie added, pointing at their friend.

With a snap of his fingers, Lucas ordered the earth down and Mikey came free. He stumbled a bit but made it into the shield unscathed. Lucas grabbed him by the arm and checked him for any injuries, momentarily forgetting that there wouldn’t be any. “Sorry, I didn’t…”

“I know”, Mikey said, even banged up as he was, the smile came easily. “Don’t worry about it.”

His eyes fell on Will, who was still on the floor but kept muttering about some vision coming true and just like Bill he seemed to know exactly what was going on. He sunk to his knees and started whispering to him, but as long as he also kept him inside the shield, Eddie didn’t care about it.

He tried to get an overview of the fight, but not much had changed. A fact that also displeased their attackers.

“Vic for fucks sake!”, Four shouted. “Do something!”

“Do something about the frog-looking boy first”, Five shouted back. “He’s blocking me.”

“And you couldn’t have said that before? Patrick, keep the ladies busy.”

Nine blew them a kiss before he turned his back to them and sauntered over to Bev and El. “My pleasure, Henry.” That guy gave him the creeps.

Four dodged a car thrown his way by Bev by suddenly sprouting wings and taking to the sky. His arms arm that until now had been swords reshaped themselves into a spear with a point of sharp metal.

Behind him Will struggled against Mikey’s hold. “Mike!”, he shouted. “Mike!”

Even though his shouts didn’t get Mike’s attention, they sure got Richie’s. Eddie saw him assess the situation and could pinpoint the exact moment when Richie realized his brother was in danger. He changed from a tiger into an eagle, ignored Six and his acid and shot straight toward Four.

At the same time Four aimed his spear directly at Mike, pulled his wings close to his back and dove. He and the eagle collided mid-air. The eagle let out a feeble squawk, his form blurred and then it was Richie. The lance had gauged a whole straight through his chest, Eddie could see the point, glistening red and wet, sticking out of his back.

For a moment he stopped breathing. This couldn’t be happening. And then Richie fell, and everything rushed back in. He needed him now.

Time seemed to run backwards as he sprinted towards Richie. The shouts from his friends were useless, muffled words. Eddie didn’t care about getting hurt, all he cared about was getting to Richie in time.

He reached him first and it took everything he had not to look away. There was a gaping hole in his chest, blood had already stared to fill the cavity, started to drench Richie’s clothes and spill over the asphalt. There was a gurgling sound every time he breathed, small red bubbles foaming out of his mouth. “Shit! Fuck!”

Richie’s eyes fluttered open at that, his lips curling into a barely-there smile. “E…Eds.”

“Don’t talk! I’ve got you!”

“It hu…hurts”, Richie mumbled, lips crimson red.

God, there was just so much of it. It was soaking his clothes, pooling around him, and the pool just kept expanding like a crimson sea. For once Eddie didn’t care, as he fell to his knees right there in the still warm, sticky fluid and pressed his hands to Richie’s chest.  The blood just kept coming, seeping through his fingers, drenching his pants. And when Richie started coughing, he was sprayed with it in the face. “It’s so much. So much”, he whispered.

He knew he was doing something, the familiar warm sensation glowing in his hands, but he couldn’t see any improvement. Just more blood and Richie pale as a sheet.

“Rich! Rich! Don’t fall asleep!”

But there was no answer. Not even a soft moan in response that he had at least heard him. Silence. No, no, no, no, no, no! This could not be happening. The one thing he was here for, the one thing he could do to help and now it wasn’t enough? Enough… “Dustin! I need Dustin”, he mumbled and then he yelled as loud as he could “DUSTIN!”

It felt like forever until he felt a hand on his shoulder and the glow in his hands intensifying. “Come on!”, he pressed through gritted teeth, pushing down harder on Richie’s chest as if that would help at all. “Come on! Come on!”

He could not do this right now. Richie did a ton of stupid shit and got hurt in the process, that’s why Eddie was here, to fix him up after all his stupid shit. He was going to kill him for scaring him like that. “Come on, asshole! This is nothing! Stop being dramatic!” He needed to stop! He had to open his eyes and make a stupid joke or call him Eddie Spaghetti, or just go and take his revenge on that bastard.

But he remained uncharacteristically still. Eddie’s breath caught in his throat as tears started to form in his eyes. No. Fuck no. “Richie, please! Please, don’t do this!” _Don’t do this to me. Don’t leave me._

The blood flow had died down to a trickle, normally a good sign, but not today. Why the hell wasn’t he waking up? If he could he’d shake Richie, maybe even slap him, but like this all he could do was press his hands even harder into his chest, hoping to get a reaction out of him.

“Eddie”, Dustin whispered into his ear. “Eddie, I feel dizzy.”

“Eddie”, another one of their friends said. He wasn’t sure. It might have been Bill. “Eddie, st-“

“Don’t say it!”, he snapped. “He’ll be fine! He has to be!”

He swallowed hard, forcing his eyes from his red hands to Richie’s face. Mike was gently wiping the blood from his mouth with the sleeve of his jacket. Eddie could hear him sniffle, could hear someone sobbing behind him. There was an icy hand grabbing at his heart, he felt the fingers curl around it and squeeze. A sharp pain in his chest that spread to his guts, everything cold.

“No”, he whimpered. He couldn’t give up. He could still save him.

“Eddie… Eddie, I think...” Dustin’s voice was so quiet now. “I think you’re t-taking too…”

He felt the weight of Dustin’s hand falling away from his shoulder and turned around to snap at him. How could he just give up like that? Together they could still help Richie. They could get him back. Together.

But Dustin hadn’t given up. He was lying in Lucas’ arms, not responding to his friends calling his name or Lucas patting his cheek. Was that him? Had he done that?

Without Dustin’s help, he could feel the drain too. Could feel all the remaining warmth in his body flowing into Richie. Eddie didn’t care. He’d give everything to just see Richie open his eyes again, even if that meant he’d feel this cold and empty forever. That would be okay.

His eyes started drooping, his head grew heavy, but he just needed one more moment. One more moment and it would be okay.

“Eddie…” Whoever was calling his name needed to speak up. All their following words were a slurred mumble, impossible to understand.

There were more people calling out his name now, but he barely heard them. He couldn’t even remember who they were. His friends, maybe. Or his mother. Maybe Richie. No, not Richie, it couldn’t be him… It couldn’t, but why? Something about Richie.

Everything was dark and cold and empty, but Eddie couldn’t open his eyes again. His lids were heavy, his arms felt like stone and his head… Something was dragging him under and he didn’t have the energy to fight anymore, but it was okay. It would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was the scene that inspired it all and that's why this is one of my favourite chapters because after 90K words I'm finally here, but I also want to say sorry. But hey, at least Mike is okay, right?


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We take a look at Richie & Eddie's relationship from the beginning to the present

**November 16 th, 1994**

What was he going to do? He had no money, no friends and nothing but the clothes on his back with nowhere to go. He could kick himself for having bought that bus ticket yesterday, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time to just get as far away as possible from his mom. Now he was stranded all alone in a big city that he didn’t know.

Cold and hungry as he was, he’d spent the day at a public library, but the night was starting to settle, and he was terrified of the idea of sleeping right here on a bench in the park. Nothing had ever prepared him for this. He’d never thought his own mother would turn on him like this. She’d loved him in spite of his unnatural being and helped him to manage it, but now he’d crossed a line. It wasn’t like he’d had a choice though. He hadn’t chosen to be gay, he just was.

His mother had seen it as a direct attack on her, as if he’d told her to hurt her, that he had in some way killed her son and replaced it with this awful, disgusting being she couldn’t recognize. All that with two words. He’d really thought she’d understand, just like she understood about his powers and still loved him.

He’d been so angry with her that he would’ve left the house even if she hadn’t told him to get out and never come back, that anger had kept him going for almost a whole day, but now he was exhausted and scared. He should’ve just kept his stupid mouth shut. Without her, he had nowhere to go. People would find out about his healing powers, they’d know he was one of those Supers and ASHA would get him. He didn’t know much about that; his mom had always told him not to worry. His father had been a Super too, and she’d loved them both even if them being special had been such a burden on her. She’d always worried about them being found out, and then there was the part of him absorbing the diseases.

As a child he’d tried to heal a bird that had flown into their kitchen window and broken its wing and his mom had hit the bird with a shovel before he could touch it, putting it out of its misery and burying it. He’d told her about his friend in school who’d had the flu and couldn’t play with him, so Eddie was thinking of going over and healing him, and his mom had pulled him out of school and decided to home school him instead. Another time their neighbour had gotten cancer and Eddie has mused that he’d be able to help him, that he wouldn’t have to die, and his mom had lost it and locked him in his room.

Using his powers was absolutely forbidden. She hadn’t given him a reason at first, other than Supers being illegal and it had to be a secret, but he’d been a curious 10-year old who had suddenly gotten a cool superpower, so he had to know why.

_“Your father died because of it, Eddie!”_

He’d nagged her about answers so much, she’d finally broken down and told him. His father had had the same power and every time he healed someone, he’d absorb the illness and get sick instead. Didn’t he understand that she couldn’t lose him in the same way. Didn’t he understand that this wasn’t a blessing but a curse?

Eddie jumped as someone sat down next to him. He’d been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed the young woman approach. She had long black hair and striking blue eyes, very pretty if it hadn’t been for the cigarette in her mouth. She studied him with great interest. Eddie tried to ignore her at first, but she kept staring. Wasn’t it a bit early for the weirdos to take over the park? He had to leave, but he still had no fucking idea where to go.

“You look like you could use some cheering up”, she said after a while.

If he didn’t answer, she would leave, right?

She sighed, blowing out the smoke of her cigarette. “You’ve been sitting here for over an hour. Did someone stand you up?”

She’d been watching him for over an hour? Weren’t creeps supposed to be older and uglier and male? She didn’t look the type.

“Leave me alone”, he mumbled, keeping his eyes on his hands.

“I’m just trying to help.”

“Don’t need any help.”

She snorted. “Are you sure about that, sugar? I’ve seen a lot of miserable people in my life but you’re taking the fucking cake.”

“Did you just call me sugar?”, Eddie asked, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah.” She shifted a little closer, grinning. “Do you like it?”

Eddie quickly scooted away from her. “I don’t need your help! Leave me alone!”

She took another drag of her cigarette, then offered it to him, making Eddie scoot even further until he was at the edge of the bench. With a shrug she put it back between her lips. “I’m Richie, and you…” He could feel her eyes all over him as she scanned him. “look like you have nowhere to go.”

He rubbed his thumb over the coffee stain on his chest that he’d gotten, when he’d run into a busy lady in an expensive suit outside of the bus station. Maybe he looked lost, but he wasn’t going to let her know how right she was. What kind of name was Richie anyway? What would that be short for? Regina, maybe.

“Got kicked out? Let me see… girlfriend? No, no, parents.”

Her bluntness and the fact that she was spot on with her assumptions got to him. Was it that obvious? “Fuck off!” He shot her the worst glare he could muster, hoping she would finally leave him alone.

No chance. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do shit!”

“Did you steal your daddy’s keys and crash his car?”

“No.”

“Did you seduce your stepmom?”

“Gross!”

“Did you seduce your actual mom?”

“What the fuck?!”

She threw her head back as she laughed as if that was the funniest joke ever and not the sickest, most disgusting thing Eddie had ever heard.

When she calmed down, she brushed the hair out of her face. “So what did you actually do? Can’t be any worse than my suggestions.”

Just to shut her up, Eddie said: “I came out to my mom.” If he was lucky this Richie girl was also homophobic and would finally get away from him.

He was not lucky. Her grin turned into a frown, all jokes suddenly gone. “Shit, I hate her.”

Eddie was overcome with the sudden urge to defend his mom, to explain that she wasn’t all that bad, but he bit his tongue. He should hate her too. He should.

“No, really”, Richie said. “I hate people like that. What’s the big deal if you like dick? People should mind their own damn business.”

“Uh… yeah, I guess.” He really didn’t feel up to discussing gay rights and other people’s bigotry right now.

“I’m right!”

“Okay”, Eddie said. “They should, but they don’t.”

“You should be mad.”

“I am mad!” Right now he was more pissed at Richie for telling him what he should be feeling though. Who did she think she was? “But ranting about how unfair everything is won’t help me find a place to stay.”

“Sitting here doesn’t either”, Richie pointed out.

“What do you want me to do? Knock on people’s doors?”

“Homeless shelters are a thing.”

“I can’t go there.” It would probably be crawling with diseases in there, what if he accidentally touched someone and used his powers? What if they did DNA testing to make sure he wasn’t a Super? His mom used to tell him that a lot of parents threw their kids out on the street when they found out they were Supers, so all shelters had started to test them, so they could report all Supers to ASHA and make more room in the shelters. But maybe that was still better than living on the streets.

Richie scooted closer again. “Why not? Are you too good for that?”

“No. I just can’t. Okay?”

“Well, sugar”, she winked at him as she used the awful pet name again, “I think you’re out of options. It’s either a shelter or staying the night here and probably get stabbed or something, or…”

She got to her feet and flicked the cigarette away.

“Or what?”, Eddie asked, already sure the third option wouldn’t be much better.

“Or you could come with me.”

Did she really expect him to? Did she not hear how insane that sounded? They’d talked for maybe five minutes and now she wanted him to come home with her? “I just told you, I like guys.”

With his luck this would turn into a Jeffrey Dahmer situation and he’d find himself chopped up in a freezer.

She laughed. “Jesus, I wasn’t hitting on you. Unless you want me to. You are kind of cute.”

“Still gay.”

“Oh right, just a second.” She winked at him, looked around to see if anyone was watching them and then in a matter of seconds, she had turned into a tall, broad-shouldered guy with a tan complexion, dark eyes and dark hair and that infuriating smile people wore when they knew they were good-looking.

She, or he… they had just switched form. Shapeshifted or whatever. Eddie had heard about other Supers, but he’d never met one, never seen one use their powers and here he just stumbled across one? Did they not know how dangerous that little trick just was? Anyone could’ve seen them, they were in a public park after all.

“You…” He could only stare at him, unable to put his thoughts into words.

Richie grinned, showing of a row of perfect teeth. “This your type then? Made you speechless, didn’t I?”

“You’re a Super.”

“Oh.” He ran a hand through his hair. “That. I really thought I had you there.”

He was a Super and he wanted Eddie to come with him, which all of a sudden had become less insane. Just because they were both Supers, didn’t mean Richie wasn’t dangerous. According to his mom most Supers were, but Eddie was starting to think there were a lot of things his mom was wrong about.

“You can’t just do that out in public”, Eddie hissed, now looking around himself. If anybody had seen Richie transform, they could both be in trouble. “What if someone saw?”

Richie shrugged. “I won’t be hanging around much longer anyway. So, sugar, are you coming with me? I promise I won’t kill you or molest you or whatever.”

“I could turn you in.” Why did he say that? Now Richie would definitely not take him home, wherever that might be. And how had that option turned into something he wanted in the matter of seconds? He really was pathetic, wasn’t he? Just because Richie was a Super, too, didn’t mean he couldn’t be dangerous.

“Look, I don’t plan on hurting you in any way because I’m not kidding, you really do look like shit and I want to help you, but if you fuck me over, I promise you, it won’t end well for you. Capice?”

What else could he do but nod? Surprisingly that was enough for Richie’s smile to return and the tone to go back to teasingly playful. The guy would make a good actor.

“So what do you say, sugar? Coming with me?”

Eddie looked at the outstretched hand, then up at Richie. “On one condition.”

“Already making demands, huh? I like it.”

“Never call me sugar again.”

“What do you want me to call you? Darling?”

“How about Eddie?”

“I could manage that.” He finally took Richie’s hand then and was immediately being dragged along. “Or what do you think of Eds? Or Eddie Spaghetti, it rhymes!”

He had a feeling he was going to regret taking Richie up on his offer.

* * *

 

“Hey.”

Richie turned around to find Eddie leaning in the doorway of his room. It had been a couple of days and he’d inserted himself extremely well into the whole group. Nobody was talking about him ratting them out to ASHA anymore, not that Richie ever thought he would, but Bill had his trust issues. He’d watched Eddie for a long time that day before deciding to speak to him and if Richie was good at something, it was finding people completely lost in life. Maybe because he could see himself in them. Whatever the reason, he hadn’t been wrong when he met Stan and Bill, or Mike, and Ben and Bev had kind of been a given, but the point was, he was never wrong about these kinds of things.

“Eds, what’s up?”

“Stop calling me that! It’s such a stupid name.”

“Well, you already took sugar off the list, and I like it.” Meaning he liked how much Eddie hated it. The only thing that took the cake was any variation of the Spaghetti name. It was so much fun to get him riled up.

He grabbed his guitar out of the corner of his room, took a seat on his bed and started playing quietly. The rest of the asylum was quiet with Bill and Ben on a supply run, Mike in the garden and whatever Bev and Stan had gotten up to.

Eddie lingered in the doorway for a while longer until he decided to enter and sit at the end of his bed. Richie would’ve sung, but according to Stan he sounded like a pig in a meat grinder no matter what face he wore, and he wasn’t quite ready to let Eddie know that. Although he could just blame it on Jess’s horrible vocal cords, but that would be a short-lived lie. A shame, too; the real Jess had been a great singer, at least 5-year-old Richie had thought her version of the Itsy Bitsy Spider had been a hit.

“So you came here to argue about nicknames?”

Eddie’s eyes were fixed on his fingers as he kept strumming the guitar. It felt like he was avoiding looking him in the eye. Curious. “Eds?”

“I was just thinking… I’ve still not seen you. The real you.”

Oh. He put the guitar down, so he could stretch and grab the pack of cigarettes from the windowsill and lit one. Eddie wrinkled his nose but didn’t say anything; either he thought that Richie could do whatever he wanted in his own room or he really wanted to see his real face.

“Maybe you already have.”

Eddie shook his head. “Ben said you wouldn’t let me see. Why?”

Damn Ben and his inability to keep a secret, not that it was necessarily a secret. He just needed some time to let people see his face, so the disappointment wouldn’t hurt too much. That was the downside of always looking the best he could, people would inevitably be disappointed when they saw the mess he really was. It was always the same.

He blew out the smoke through his nose. “Do you want to see if I have horns or a third eye?”

“Do you think I would mind if you did? I know we’ve only known each other for a few days, but I thought we were friends”, Eddie muttered. “But if me being here means you can’t be yourself, maybe I shouldn’t.”

Eddie had surprised him many times already; turning out to be full of fight and knowing how to make himself heard – hey, he was a scared, timid boy on a park bench when Richie found him, he was allowed to be surprised – being able to eat five burgers with a big portion of fries on the side in one sitting, or looking absolutely amazing in all the oversized and worn out clothes he’d been borrowing from them, Ben’s sweaters, his band shirts and Mike’s overalls being Richie’s favourites. However, he hadn’t thought Eddie would turn out to be this egocentric, to make all his body issues and years of awful parenting about himself.

“Jesus”, he said, drawing the word out. “I just need some time to… It’s not like you being here changes anything.”

“Time to do what?” Eddie had dropped the not looking him in the eye thing and was back to full on staring him down. That boy really liked his confrontation, didn’t he? Richie could only imagine how that coming out with his mother had gone. “It changes enough. I can go.”

“Go where? Shit, I wasn’t wrong when I said you were dramatic.” He plucked the cigarette from his lips, hoping Eddie wouldn’t notice the slight tremor of his hand. Did he really have to show him his face to make Eddie stay here? He knew it was a stupid thing to be so anal about, sooner or later Eddie would see it anyway, so he wouldn’t let him leave over it. The others wouldn’t let him either. They all already loved Eddie so much, they would hate him if this stupid thing was the reason Eddie would be out on his own again. And yet it wasn’t so easy to just switch. He hadn’t been in his own skin for days now and he didn’t miss it. He could do without his mother’s voice in his head pointing out all the flaws, could do without the annoying thoughts overanalysing every glance in his direction, could do without wondering if he was enough at all times.

But he knew he couldn’t keep it up for much longer anyway. He was tired all the time now, snappy and his jokes out of place, he knew, because he’d gotten in a dumb fight with Stan over breakfast because he said something. Something he couldn’t even remember now, but he remembered the looks he’d earned from the others, he’d gone too far. Normally he was better. Sure, he slipped up now and then, sometimes not knowing when to stop, but he’d slipped up several days for a while now. It was what happened when his power was starting to drain him.

“Shit, Richie!”

The pain only set in after Eddie scrambled over and flicked the cigarette off his arm. He hadn’t even noticed it slipping from his fingers, not to mention it burning a hole into his skin. Eddie was now holding his arm in a death grip, as if he could fix it by just staring at the wound. It was nice to see him so concerned even though it was nothing. He had some more scars just like it on his legs, some of those hadn’t been earned just as accidentally as this one.

He tried pulling his arm away. “That happens, no biggie.”

But Eddie wouldn’t let him. “Yes, big deal. That must hurt like a bitch. I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.”

He tried again, to no avail. Eddie actually had the audacity to scowl at him as he pulled the arm in for closer inspection.

“Let me take care of it.”

Richie huffed. “I can put a band-aid on myself, doctor.”

Without another word, Eddie clasped a hand over the burn, which made Richie want to rip his fucking fingers off one by one as the pain surged at the touch, but then it dulled until it wasn’t even there anymore. When Eddie pulled his hand away the burn had disappeared, not even leaving the faintest scar.

“What the fuck?” He poked at his arm and scratched it, but the burn was completely gone. Just like that. “How did you… Eddie!” He jumped a little as Richie shouted his name. “It’s been fucking days! And you don’t think it’s worth mentioning that you’re a Super, too?”

He could’ve saved himself a few discussions with Bill about how he had compromised the entire group by bringing Eddie here, if they had known he was a Super too. Richie had never believed Eddie would rat them out, he just had a feeling he wouldn’t, but it would have eased Bill’s mind to know he was one of them. Bill worried so easily.

Eddie fiddled with the sleeves of his sweater, this one he’d borrowed from Bill, and the sleeves kept slipping over his hands. “Because I’m not like you.”

“How are you not? You just healed my burn in no time.”

“I really shouldn’t use my powers. My mom…. I shouldn’t.”

“Why not?” He’d only ever seen this reluctance in Stan, and he could kind of understand why Stan was scared of using his powers, but why would Eddie be? He had healing powers, what could be bad or dangerous about that?

“Because it makes me sick. If I heal someone, I will get their sickness.”

Richie grabbed Eddie’s arm and pushed the sleeve up to his elbow. If that was true, he would have a burn there now, wouldn’t he? However, there was nothing but smooth, tan skin. “That doesn’t sound right.”

Eddie pulled his arm away. “It is! My dad had the same power and he died because of it. Mom told me all about it.”

Fuck how he hated that woman. Every time Eddie spoke of her it painted a worse picture of her. Parents just weren’t meant to be decent people, Richie had known that for a long time and judging by Eddie’s tales of his mother he should too, but apparently she was very good at spinning her web around him.

“Have you ever healed someone and gotten sick, Eddie? Don’t you think she might’ve been lying?”

“No, I… Why would she do that?”

Richie shook his head. “I don’t know your mother, but I know that normal people don’t like us very much. Even if they claim otherwise. So maybe your mother just didn’t want you to use your powers, so she could pretend you weren’t a Super.”

Still, in a way that was better than calling ASHA on your own damn kid, but how hard could it be to accept a kid with healing powers? Nobody got hurt, quite contrary actually. Eddie’s mother wasn’t close to winning any parenting awards in Richie’s eyes, further proving his point that parents all sucked.

It was clear from Eddie’s expression that he’d never questioned his mother’s reason for forbidding the use of his powers and the idea she might have been lying, seemed to be too hard to wrap his head around. He just sat there completely frozen, and it slowly dawned on Richie that there was a lot of stuff to unpack here.

But if he was so afraid of his own powers that he wouldn’t even tell another group of Supers about them, why had he so willingly shown him? Richie knew Eddie trusted him, otherwise he’d never followed him that day in the park, although he hadn’t had much choice, so Richie was surprised to learn how deep that trust went after just a couple of days.

In the hopes of snapping Eddie out of his trance, and because he didn’t want Eddie to feel like he didn’t trust him as much as the others, he decided to stop hiding. He took a deep breath and let Jess’s face wash away, becoming himself for the first time since they met. Long, awkward limbs. Pale, freckly skin. Crooked teeth. Huge, ugly glasses. Untameable hair, not that he ever tried. He held his breath as Eddie looked at him.

“What are you doing?”

“You wanted to see my face”, he said, trying to sound as casual as he could.

They sat in silence for a moment, probably not longer than a few seconds, but long enough for the tiny voice in his head to start bombarding him. _He’s going to make fun of you like the kids at school. He’ll call you Bucky Beaver like they did. He’ll ask you to put on another face. He probably feels it’s hard to look at you._

Part of him knew Eddie wouldn’t, but he still couldn’t make the voice shut up.

Eddie was now scrutinizing him from head to toe, slowly a smile spread over his face. “You’re tall. Taller than Bill.”

It made it hard to blend in, everyone noticed a big, ugly giant. “Isn’t everyone tall to you.”

“Fuck off!” Eddie shoved him, but he was laughing. “And you have freckles.”

“Yeah.” Was he going to point out everything he hated about himself now? Richie wasn’t sure he could deal with that. He was already itching with the need to put on a different face even though he very much needed to recharge.

* * *

 

The alcohol burned on its way down, but Richie still swallowed big gulps of it. He needed this tonight. There was a guy waiting for him in a club tonight. It was something he did in secret, when all the others were sleeping. He would tell them, but it really wasn’t worth fighting over, and they would fight. Bill saw dangers everywhere. Sometimes Richie just wanted to feel normal and forget that people were after his ass just for existing, and the best way to do that was to go to clubs and dance and hook up with random people wearing faces that were a million times prettier than his. He’d leave when everybody had fallen asleep and be back long before they woke up. He’d done it too many times to count, but he still needed liquid courage before he took off.

He screwed the lid back on the bottle, put it back on the shelf and made his way over to the kitchen window. The cool winter air hit his face as he opened it. In the darkness he could barely make out the cars parked behind the asylum or where the treetops started to melt into the night sky but knew he wouldn’t have a problem once he turned into a bat.

“Richie?”

He whirled around, heart hammering in his chest. He wasn’t doing anything bad, but he still felt like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

It was hard to make out Eddie across the room, but he knew that voice anywhere, and even though he couldn’t see him very well, he knew Eddie would be wearing an oversized shirt over his boxers, his hair probably all mussed up and his eyes small and tired. Richie hadn’t known Eddie could get any cuter until he’d shown up in his room looking just like that one night. It had taken a lot of time to ban that mental image from his brain.

“Eds, my man”, he said, closing the window and stepping away from it. “What are you doing up?”

As he moved closer to him, he could see Eddie shuffling his feet. Everyone knew Ben had trouble sleeping, not everyone knew Eddie felt the same way and that they would often share a room. “Are the ghosts keeping you up again?”

“That’s not funny”, Eddie hissed. “I swear I can hear them.”

“It’s an abandoned building, Darling, there’s a million things living here but ghosts aren’t one of them.”

“Abandoned asylum.”

It was best not to argue with Eddie about this if he still wanted to get to that club tonight. Now he just needed to find a way to get Eddie back to sleep.

“Why aren’t you in Ben’s room? I don’t think you wandering around here in the dark will help your fear of ghosts”, he said, trying to sound as nice as possible and not let his impatience stain his words.

“He’s sleeping in Bev’s room tonight.”

Damn, there went his easy way to get Eddie out of his hair and go get laid. It happened rarely that Eddie didn’t have Ben to rely on in nights like these and when that was the case he often slipped into Richie’s room, probably because he didn’t want to disturb Stan and Bill and he wasn’t nearly as hard to rouse as Mike. Seriously, that guy slept like a log, a deaf log. It wasn’t that Richie minded helping Eddie out, it was just… He didn’t like the thoughts those nights accompanied. It was exactly those kinds of thoughts that made him do these nightly excursions to different clubs.

He took a deep breath, cast a last look at the window, then placed an arm around Eddie’s shoulder. There would be no cute guy for him after all. “Let’s have a sleepover.”

“You don’t hav-…”

“Don’t finish that sentence, Eds, or I will leave you to roam these halls with the ghosts.” He steered Eddie out of the kitchen towards his room. “Help me grab my stuff.”

They were quiet as they moved Richie’s mattress to Eddie’s room, not wanting to wake the others, but as soon as the door closed behind them, Eddie nudged his arm. “Thanks, Rich.”

“I’d do anything for my Eddie Spaghetti, especially if he asks me to sleep with him.”

“You really are the worst, you know.”

Richie crawled under his blanket but propped himself up on his elbow, so he could look at Eddie in his bed. “I do. Wanna know how bad I really am?”

Eddie made a strangled noise. In the darkness it was hard to tell if he was holding back laughter or as usual annoyed with him, so Richie chose to file it away as the first one.

Being in Eddie’s room at night, knowing he was lying not only a foot away, that he could just reach out his hand and touch him, sent Richie’s mind spinning. Down the hall, Stan and Bill were sharing a room too, very similar and still so different. Sometimes Richie wished he could trade with either of them, wished to know what it felt like to fall asleep curled around someone he loved. There were times where he believed the possibility had been within his reach but looking back he knew it hadn’t been the same, only a mere shadow of what Stan and Bill had.

Eddie shifted in his bed, bringing their faces closer together. For some reason Richie was reminded of the first time he’d shown him his real face, how Eddie had suggested to leave and how absurd that had seemed to Richie then. Back then he’d known he wanted Eddie to stay, today he knew he needed him to stay. Their group had to stay exactly as it was, he couldn’t go on without anyone of them, but Eddie…

There were a lot of things he wanted, that he believed he needed, but above all he needed them to stay as they were. They were a fragile construct, he knew that. He knew that probably better than anyone else, so he was determined not to disturb it, so he had to let go of a lot of things he wanted.

“Have you been drinking?”, Eddie whispered. “You smell of booze.”

“Only a little.”

“Why? Did something happen?”

Richie snorted. “Nobody goes ghost hunting sober. That’s the first rule of ghost hunting.”

“Richie…”

“I just wanted a little taste, that’s all.” He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. No way was he going to discuss his drinking habits with Eddie. Ever since he’d mentioned his mother being an alcoholic, Eddie had been keeping a close eye on his drinking. For some reason he was convinced Richie could develop the same habit. Maybe he thought, he was looking out for him, but if anything it was insulting as fuck.

“Do you ever get tired of pretending?”

“Pretending what?” To be honest, Richie pretended so much he couldn’t even tell he was doing it half the time. That was probably just a side effect of being a shapeshifter.

Eddie sighed and rolled over, turning his back on Richie. “Nothing.”

* * *

 

**October 12 th, 1995**

Pain. He woke up to a dull, throbbing pain in his chest and back. When he tried opening his eyes, his lids were heavy as lead. His fingers he could move but barely. Even though he’d just woken up from a deep sleep, he was exhausted. Ready to go for another round.

And he would have if the memories hadn’t flooded back in. Four up in the air with wings he’d sprouted out of nowhere, his arms fused together to a sharp and deadly spear pointed directly at Mike, who hadn’t even noticed. Without a plan he’d dived for him and then… He couldn’t remember what had happened after that. Mike. Was Mike okay?

He took the little strength he had and finally opened his eyes. He was in a darkened room, lying in a big bed and there were two people sitting at the end of the bed but without his glasses he couldn’t tell who they were.

“Richie!”

He couldn’t see him clearly, but he recognized Stan by his voice and his smell when he hugged him. He drew a sharp breath as Stan brushed against his chest, the dull pain suddenly turning into a sharp burn.

“Oh shit, sorry.”

“Wh…” His mouth was dry, and his tongue moved as sluggish as the rest of his body.

Thankfully someone placed his glasses on his nose and he could finally see. Stan was beaming down at him, but there were dark circles under his eyes. Next to him sat a young woman, Richie hadn’t seen before. Like Stan, she looked tired, but when their eyes met she smiled shyly.

“I’m so glad you woke up”, she said. “I’m Nancy.”

Nancy. It took him a moment to place the name. Nancy, Mike’s sister. His sister. They had made it. But where was everyone else?

He couldn’t speak, so he looked at Stan for help, hoping he would understand even without words.

Stan twisted his hands in his lap, his eyes staring holes into the blanket as he spoke. “Things went to shit real fast, Rich. We all thought… You… You got impaled by that asshole, right through the chest.” That explained the pain. “Eddie did his best. He and Dustin both did, but… shit we all thought you were dead.”

“’m….n-not”, he managed to croak.

“Yeah, thank fuck you’re not”, Stan laughed, but he still wouldn’t look him in the eyes. “We weren’t sure you were going to wake up. Dustin was out cold for hours, but you and Ed-…”

Stan sighed, letting his eyes drift to the other side of the bed. Richie felt his heart sink. Eddie had healed him but clearly he hadn’t finished, if he had he wouldn’t be in pain now. Eddie.

He closed his eyes, bracing himself for whatever he was going to see, then turned his head. Eddie was lying next to him, all colour washed out of him and still as a statue. He looked dead.

“He wouldn’t stop”, Stan said. “Honestly, I think you did die. But Eddie wouldn’t let you go.”

Fighting against the heaviness in his limbs, Richie slowly reached out and touched Eddie’s cheek. All the times he’d pinched his cheeks. Warm and rosy, now he was cold, and he didn’t swat his hand way. Eddie would never let Richie touch him like this. Or would he? He would’ve given his life for Eddie no questions asked, and he knew why he would, but Eddie… Eddie didn’t even like him half of the time.

He was reminded of that night in the van, when Eddie had held his hand and he’d been so close to confessing and then he’d chickened out. Again. And now Eddie was… now he wouldn’t get a chance to say anything at all.

“How long?”

“Two days”, Nancy said. “You’ve been here for two days.”

He pushed himself closer to Eddie, ignoring the pain in his torso, ignoring his unwilling limbs. He wasn’t dead. If he were they wouldn’t have put him here next to him, and if Richie could wake up after two days and being impaled so could Eddie. He fucking had to. They weren’t done yet.

“Eddie”, he mumbled with his face pressed into Eddie’s hair. He didn’t care that Stan and Nancy could see, that they could hear him. All that mattered now was Eddie. “You… you’ve got…to wake up.”

There was so much he wanted to say, if only his tongue would cooperate. He needed Eddie to wake up because he couldn’t go on without him. When he’d told him that he was in his life to stay, he’d meant it. “Please.”

The pain in his chest surged as he pulled Eddie close, but Richie didn’t care. Eddie needed to know he was here and waiting for him. He tasted salt as he closed his eyes, sleep dragging him back under and with no energy left to fight, he relinquished himself to the darkness. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Richie isn't dead because I couldn't do that to my boy


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie and Richie are both awake and get filled in on the end of their fight against Bower's Gang

“Are you sure he was awake?”

“Yes, Dustin, I’m sure.”

“Are you really sure?”

“Dustin!”

“How else would he have moved over there?”

“And Eddie?”

“Nothing.”

“He’s still breathing though.”

He didn’t know what they were talking about, but why did it have to be so loud and right next to him? He tried drowning them out and just go back to sleep, but there was no drowning out Dustin.

“Have you tried waking him again?”

“He needs rest.”

“They’ve rested three days.”

“Three days seems normal if you come back from the dead.”

“Richie didn’t die, Stan. He’s right there.”

“He did, and Eddie brought him back.”

“Eddie can’t do that.”

It took a moment for the words to register. Richie died. The memories came crashing back all at once. The blood, pooling around Richie, spluttering from his lips, coating Eddie’s hands. The gaping hole in his chest. The cold, and then the darkness.

He sat up with a gasp, feeling a heavy weight slide off him as he did. Richie’s arm was now lying in his lap, pale and freckly but warm when he gently let his fingers trail over it. His chest was covered in clean, white bandages, hiding the wound from view, but Eddie’s imagination filled in the blanks. He hadn’t managed to heal it completely, how bad was it still? Judging by the bandages he wasn’t bleeding anymore or maybe they had just been changed recently. What if there still was a gaping hole in his chest? He needed a hospital.

“Eddie!”

Mikey’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. Only now did he survey his surroundings. He was in a bedroom, he’d never seen before surrounded by Dustin, Stan, Will, Mikey and two strangers. They stood in the back giving them space.

Will followed his gaze. “That’s my brother Jonathan and Mike’s sister Nancy.”

Mikey took Eddie’s hand and gave it a light squeeze. “How do you feel? You had us really worried.”

He turned to Richie, gently rolling him on his back. “How is he? You said he died.”

“That’s just Stan’s theory”, Dustin said.

“Well, you get your heart torn to shreds and try not to die”, Stan muttered.

“Eddie”, Mikey repeated. “How do you feel? You’ve been out for three days.”

Three days? That meant Richie had been lying here for three days without medical attention, were they completely insane? He needed surgery and skin grafts and what not.

He pushed Mikey off him and tried to get out of bed. “Three days?” His voice was high and squeaky, but for once he didn’t care. “Three fucking days! He needs a doctor!”

Mikey’s hands were gentle but firm as he pushed him back onto the bed, and Eddie would’ve fought him if the room hadn’t suddenly started to spin and his knees buckled.

“Take it easy, Eddie.”

How was he supposed to do that, when Richie’s life was still on the line? How the fuck where they all so calm? If his legs wouldn’t support him and let him get up, he would have to do this himself again. He placed his hands on Richie chest, reaching for his power. At the same time Mikey, Dustin and Stan pulled him away.

“Are you crazy?”, Dustin asked. “You’re going to put yourself into a coma again!”

“I don’t care!”

He struggled as much as his weakened state would let him. To no avail. His friends overpowered him easily. He only stopped, when Richie started to stir. With his eyes still closed, his right hand patted the bed until he found Eddie’s hand then grabbed it firmly. As firmly as one could on the brink of death.

“Eds”, he mumbled. “Stop.”

“Told you, he was awake”, Stan said dryly.

When his friends still wouldn’t let him go, he glared at them until they finally relinquished their hold and he could throw himself at Richie. He was okay. He was okay. Tears pricked his eyes as relief washed over him and Eddie didn’t care that everybody could see, he was just so happy Richie was still here.

“Ow”, he muttered, but a moment later Eddie felt Richie’s arms around him.

Someone cleared their throat, then Mikey said: “Maybe we should give them some space.”

While everyone filed out, they didn’t move. Eddie took the opportunity to inhale Richie’s scent and hide his tears in Richie’s neck.

“You’re… such a stupid idiot.”

Eddie sat up then, but let his hands linger on Richie’s shoulders, not willing to fully give up physical contact yet. “Me? You’re the one who got himself impaled.”

“That was an accident. You… You did a stupid thing on purpose.”

“I saved you!” Was he serious right now? What was he supposed to do? Just let him die? Yeah, like he would just let that happen.

“And you almost killed yourself over it”, Richie said. He pushed himself into a sitting position, pulling a face at the pain. He took a few deep breaths, then reached out to take Eddie’s hands. He had half a mind to pull them away, not feeling like holding hands with Richie when he acted like that. “You can’t do that, Eddie.”

“It’s my life”, he snapped. “I can do whatever I want with it.”

“No, you fucking can’t! Stop acting like you don’t matter!” It wasn’t like he didn’t matter, although he probably didn’t in the grand scheme of things, it was that Richie mattered more. He’d saved him that night when he found him in the park and Eddie had yet to repay him for that. Besides, what would he even do without him? “You matter to me!”

“That’s why I saved you”, Eddie said, letting his eyes drop. “I couldn’t… without you…”

“And you think I would want to live without you?”, Richie asked, his voice now softer, anger slowly ebbing away.

His breath hitched. In any other situation he’d tell himself Richie was joking again, but now… Richie wouldn’t joke about that now, would he? Not after both of them nearly died. Eddie looked at him, searching his face for any evidence of a joke.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like I don’t mean it.”

Could he really blame him? He’d never meant it before, always following a sentence like that up with a crude remark or a joke about his mom, so it really wasn’t Eddie’s fault that he had trouble taking him seriously.

Richie cupped his cheek with one hand, brushing the tears away with his thumb. “You’ve been crying.”

Eddie brushed his own fingers over the traces of dried tears on Richie’s face. “So have you.”

“I thought you’d left me, what’s your excuse?”

Eddie smiled, leaning into Richie’s touch a little more. “I would never.”

“Is that a promise?”

“It’s a fact.”

This might have been the longest conversation he’d had with Richie without him cracking any jokes, and if Eddie hadn’t been so tired of talking, he’d marvelled at that fact a little longer. It really did take both of them almost dying for Richie to be serious, huh?

When Richie just kept staring at him with that dopey smile on his face and did nothing to close the gap between them, Eddie sighed. He really did have to do everything himself, didn’t he? “Kiss me already, you d-…”

Before he could finish his insult, Richie surged forward, pressing their lips together. Over time Eddie had imagined kissing Richie hundreds of times, he’d thought about morning kisses, kisses to shut him up, kisses in the rain and kisses on New Year’s Eve and kisses underneath the mistletoe. The thing was none of them were real, no matter how romantic and dreamy they were, so he preferred this, even if Richie’s lips were chapped and he came at him with so much speed, their teeth smashed together.

Now that he was kissing Richie, he couldn’t remember how he’d gone so long without, and it still wasn’t enough. He needed more. Without breaking the kiss, he crawled into his lap, running his hands over Richie’s back, pressing him closer until they were chest to chest. When he felt Richie’s tongue pressing against his lips, he was more than willing to let him in.

He dug his nails into Richie’s shoulders, but regretted it immediately when Richie winced and his hands stilled in Eddie’s hair.

“Shit”, he mumbled against Richie’s lips. “I’m sorry.”

Richie took a few slow and deep breaths. “I’m fine.”

Eddie shook his head, letting his hands glide over Richie’s chest now and resting them on the bandage. He could feel a steady heartbeat underneath it, at least he’d managed to salvage the most important part. “You’re not.”

“Yeah, I am.” Richie kissed him again. “I’m actually great right now.”

“I can fix it.”

Before he could even try, Richie had grabbed his wrists and pulled his hands away. “No”, he said, firmly. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous”, Eddie said. Richie had his hands in a death grip he couldn’t get out of, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still lean into his space, their noses touching now. “You’re in pain, I’m a healer, let me take care of you. You don’t have to act tough.”

Richie wiggled his eyebrows. “I’ll gladly let you take care of me, babe, but there’s no way in hell I’ll let you use your powers right now. You heard Dustin, you’ll probably knock yourself out again.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. What did Dustin even know. “I won’t. I feel great.”

He tried staring Richie down, so he would cut this bullshit and just let him finish what he started, but Richie didn’t budge. He only brought Eddie’s hands to his lips and kissed each palm. “I love these hands and what they can do, but if you try to heal me one more time I will cut them off.”

“Wow, you’re a real romantic”, Eddie snorted.

“I mean it, Eddie.”

“Fine.” He let his forehead drop against Richie’s. If he was going to be so dramatic about it, Eddie wasn’t going to force his powers on him. Not yet. If he was still acting this way tomorrow, he was going to tie him down and heal that wound even without Richie’s permission. Now, though, there were better things they could do while they still had the luxury of being alone.

* * *

 

There was a knock on the door and then Nancy poked her head in. Richie pulled the blanket up to his chin with one hand, the other still entwined with Eddie’s and he wasn’t ready yet to let go.

“I just wanted to see how you were”, she said in a soft voice, so she wouldn’t wake Eddie. “Any pain?”

Lots. Breathing wasn’t supposed to feel like a big ass needle stabbing your repeatedly, was it? Richie shook his head. “Thanks for letting us stay here.”

She smiled as she took a seat on the edge of the bed. “Don’t worry about it. You’re family, right?”

“Right.” At least he hoped so. He was Mike’s brother, but that didn’t necessarily mean the rest of Mike’s family wouldn’t see him as an intruder. Nancy had every right to be annoyed with him, occupying her bedroom and not even properly thanking her for it in the first place.

“You almost gave me a heart attack, you know.”

“I did?”

“I don’t know if you noticed, but you look a lot like Mike”, she joked. “So, when you got carried in here covered in blood… That wasn’t exactly how I wanted to see my little brother again.”

She must’ve been relieved to find out he was just the twin and her real brother was actually safe. Where was he anyway? Nancy, who didn’t even know him, had been by his side both times he’d woken up now and Mike wasn’t anywhere. He was safe right?

“Where is he?”

“I’m not sure”, she said. “There’s a lot I don’t understand about your… your life, I guess, and what happened. Will says a group of your friends had to go after ASHA. They took someone.”

“Who?” He had barely looked at his friends when they were in here earlier Will, Mikey, Dustin and Stan were okay, but what about the rest? His blood ran cold at the thought what ASHA would do to them, what those psychopathic brothers of El’s could get up to.

“I don’t know. I just know Mike went after them.”

“I need to know”, he said. “I need to know!”

“I’ll get someone else”, she said.

The moments seemed to drag on as he sat there, waiting for someone to fill him in. He’d been out for two days, almost three now and meanwhile some of his friends were kidnapped by psycho ASHA projects or maybe dead already. How on earth was everyone so calm about this?

He nudged Eddie, not willing to face this on his own. “Eds, wake up!”

“No.” He pulled his hand out of Richie’s and curled into a ball and it was almost cute enough for Richie to let him be, but Eddie had to know this too. He’d hate to be the last to know.

“I’m serious. Wake up.” He let his fingers trail the curve of Eddie’s spine, then rested his palm on the small of his back. “Something happened.”

He didn’t have to say that twice. Eddie quickly sat up, scanning the room for any danger. “What?”

Just then the door opened again and Will, Mikey, Dustin and Stan all piled onto the bed with them. That meant only half of them were here.

“What happened?”, Eddie asked.

“Where are the others?”

 

* * *

 

_Stan was just getting ready to slip back out of Bill’s shield and take on Nine again, now that Eddie had healed his burn, when Lucas held him back._

_“I think I can take him from here.”_

_Lucas stepped to the very edge of the shield, one more step and he would be burnt to a crisp by the flames spreading all over it. He closed his eyes for a moment, then stomped his foot on the ground, making the earth rumble beneath them. He followed it with an upwards motion of his arms and then the flames were gone. The same way Mike had just been trapped up to his knees, Nine was now encased in earth and asphalt up to his shoulders._

_“Good job.” Lucas gave him a knowing grin._

_He hadn’t noticed what had happened around them until he heard Eddie scream for Dustin. When had he slipped away? He’d been right by his side a moment ago._

_“It’s Richie”, Will said. Mike was still holding him tightly to prevent him from running towards Michael, but he was now just staring in that direction, his whole body limp. “It wasn’t supposed to be Richie.”_

_Stan finally registered what he was looking at. Richie on the ground with Eddie, Dustin and Michael crowded around him, all kneeling in a pool of blood. And only a few feet above them hovered Four, a proud grin on his face and his arms covered in blood._

_For a moment time stood still, as he tried to figure out what this meant. Richie was hurt, badly, but Eddie could fix him. Eddie could fix anything. He would be fine, unless Four was going to attack again. Something clicked then. He knew exactly what to do now._

_He moved at the same time as the others. Bill and Will heading straight for Richie, Lucas running past Nine in his new prison and taking on Six, who was now without a partner, Mike and Ben using Nine as cover, firing their guns at Five, and Stan only had one goal. He’d make Four pay._

_The electricity covered his whole body. He couldn’t hear over the loud crackling in his ears. The usual tickle on his skin was stronger, almost painful now. He didn’t care. Lightning shot from his outstretched hand and hit Four square in the chest, but his skin had turned into grey, rock just before it touched him._

_Bev screamed as she jumped, grabbed his foot and smacked him into the street. The shithead was laughing. He’d just tried to kill their friend and he was laughing. The electricity around him intensified._

_Four got to his feet, his arms turned into blades again, eyes zeroing in on Bev. “You’ll regret that, bitch!”_

_He started running at top speed and then, suddenly, he stopped mid-motion. Stan looked past him to see El with her arms outstretched. Bev ran forward, arm pulled back and punched him in the face, it sent ripples through his skin, his features all followed the motion like a cartoon and then it all snapped back into place as if nothing had happened._

_“Fuck you!”, Bev screamed in his face. Only now did Stan notice her other hand was bleeding._

_“You can’t hurt him from the outside”, El said, she was slowly coming closer without giving up her hold on him._

_Ignoring her words, Stan sent his lightning out with the full intent to fry that piece of shit, to kill him. Again, his skin turned grey as soon as the lightning hit him, but this time Stan didn’t let the lightning stop, he kept hitting him with it. At some point he would get somewhere, right? At some point he would wipe that stupid look off his face._

_“Stan!”_

_It took El moving Four out of the way for Stan to finally stop, coming to realize he’d only burned himself out without doing any damage to Four._

_“Not from the outside”, Bev muttered, then she grinned. “I have an idea.”_

_She grabbed Four’s chin and pried his mouth open. She was straining, and Stan could see why. As soon as he realized what Bev was trying to do, Four was trying to grow his mouth shut. She had both her hands in his mouth now but could only hold it open a tiny bit._

_“Stan! Now!”_

_Now what? El nodded her head urgently, telling him to do it and do it fast. Stan didn’t know what to do._

_“Not from the outside, Stan”, Bev repeated. “Fry him inside out!”_

_Oh. That he could do. He absorbed the electricity from his skin, so he wouldn’t hurt her, when he came to stand next to her. Even now Four looked defiant. He was about to die, and he couldn’t seem to care less. Stan pushed two fingers in between Bev’s and released the lightning. Then he grabbed Bev and pulled her away, not knowing what this would turn into. Both her hands were now slick with blood._

_At first nothing happened, Four just leered at them, razor-sharp shark teeth filled his mouth. That explained Bev’s hands. What a fucking asshole. Then the electricity ran through his skin, the same blueish hue Stan was so used to. He could see it on Four’s neck, his cheeks, saw his eyes momentarily glow with it and then Four collapsed. Eyes wide open but unseeing. His teeth were normal again, his arms just arms, his skin normal skin._

_El was the first to touch him, carefully placing a hand on his neck. “Dead.”_

_“That was anticlimactic”, Bev said. “I thought he would explode or something.”_

_“I think I just stopped his heart or melted his brain.”_

_Saying it out loud made him feel sick. Now that Four was dead, he didn’t feel relieved or proud over it. He hated how much he’d wanted to hurt him, to take his revenge. El and Bev didn’t seem to feel the same way._

_They ran over to where their friends had crowded around Richie. Bev fell to her knees next to Bill and Michael, brushing the hair out of Richie’s pale face, smearing even more blood on him. Everything was red, Stan could feel his sneakers sticking to the ground as he stood behind Bill. Eddie was mumbling something, Dustin was unconscious lying in Lucas’s arms and then Eddie collapsed too._

_“Is he…?” He couldn’t get himself to say it._

_Bill pressed a finger to Eddie’s neck at the same time as Michael checked Richie’s pulse. “He’s just p-passed out, but his puh-puh-puh… is weak.”_

_“I can’t… I don’t…” Michael’s voice was thick with tears. He frantically pushed Eddie off, who had fallen right on top of Richie, and pressed his ear to Richie’s chest, coating the side of his face in blood._

_Stan held his breath as he waited. Richie couldn’t… He couldn’t even fathom what it would mean to lose Richie. It would destroy them._

_“He has a heartbeat”, Michael finally said. And Stan could breathe again._

_“We need to get them somewhere safe”, Mike said._

_“I’ll tell Nancy”, Michael said._

_Richie was alive. Eddie was alive. He could breathe again. In and out. In and out. Inandout. Inandout inandout inandout inandoutinandoutinandoutinandout_

_“Stan!”_

_His chest ached, but he couldn’t stop, couldn’t calm down. Bill was standing next to him now, there was blood on his jeans, his shirt was drenched in sweat, his hair plastered to his forehead._

_“Stan, it’s ok-k-kay.” It was, and yet Stan still felt like he needed more air. Bill cupped his face and kissed him, his lips pressing firmly to Stan’s. This was not the time for kissing. They had to move, they had to get Richie more help, they needed to… They had to… They…_

_When Bill stepped away, Stan’s breathing had slowed down. “Better?”_

_Stan nodded. A little._

_“Guys!” Max appeared in their middle. She looked down at the three unconscious boys, then quickly up again. “He took them!”_

_“Who?”_

_They looked around, counting their friends, but Stan’s mind was still working too fast, he kept counting the same faces._

_“El!”, Michael shouted, jumping to his feet. “Where is she?”_

_“Ben’s gone too!”_

_“He took them”, Max repeated. “Five told them to get in that car and they did. I couldn’t move until they were gone.”_

_“We have to go after them”, Michael said._

_“What about them?”, Lucas asked, nodding to their hurt friends._

_“Nancy and Jonathan are on their way here, they’ll take care of them”, Michael said._

_“I’m going with you”, Bev told him. She wiped her hands on her pants and Stan could see the marks from Four’s teeth, there were more marks on the back of her left hand though, gone straight through her hand._

_“You’re hurt”, Bill said. “I’ll go.”_

_“I’m going! It’s Ben, I have to go!”_

_Max shifted impatiently from one foot to the other. “We really don’t have time for this.”_

_“Okay”, Michael said. “Max, Lucas, Beverly and Bill come with me. Will, you fill in Nancy and Jonathan and take good care of Richie.” He grabbed Will’s shoulder. “Don’t let him die!”_

_Bill kissed Stan’s forehead. “Take care of them. K-k-k-keep them safe.”_

_All he could do was nod, although he wasn’t sure Bill even saw it. With all the abandoned cars on the street it was easy for Max to find one for them, they all piled in and were gone just like that. That left Will, Mike and him in the middle of a ruined street with three unconscious friends and a lot of people watching them._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Reddie finally happened, only took me 21 chapters, sorry. And of course things can't just go as planned because... well that's not how this universe works.

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on tumblr @itchierichie


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